By Annie Sweeney
The Chicago Sun-Times
COOK COUNTY, Ill. — Cook County authorities this month interrupted a murder-for-hire plot hatched at the jail when one inmate told another he wanted a witness killed, authorities said.
Eric Miller, 33, was in Cook County Jail awaiting trial on an attempted murder charge when he and another inmate discussed the scheme, prosecutors said in court Friday.
Miller allegedly offered up the location of a house where drugs and money could be stolen in exchange for the murder, prosecutors said. The inmate reported the conversation to authorities, who sent an undercover police officer to talk to Miller, prosecutors said.
Miller allegedly asked the undercover cop to kill the witness because he was a snitch, prosecutors said.
Miller has been in the jail since January 2007 after being charged with beating someone in a fight in a south suburb, said Penny Mateck, a Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman.
Now, he’s also facing charges of murder for hire, solicitation for murder, solicitation for robbery and solicitation for home invasion, prosecutors said. On Friday, he was ordered held on $750,000 bail. His last known address is in Lynwood.
Copyright 2008 Chicago Sun Times