Woman sentenced in trying to have hitman kill boyfriend’s lover

A North Texas woman who tried to hire a hitman to kill her boyfriend’s lover has been sentenced to nine years in prison, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton said in a news release Thursday.

Michelle Murphy, 58, of Bedford, was charged via criminal complaint in September and pleaded guilty in December to a murder-for-hire charge, according to the release.

Murphy used the dark web to attempt to pay a hitman $10,510 in Bitcoin to murder a woman who was seeing her boyfriend, according to court documents. She used an ATM to convert cash into cryptocurrency on at least three occasions, the release states. On July 27, Murphy transferred about .0358 in Bitcoin — $10,510 — to a Bitcoin wallet she believed belonged to a murder-forhire recipient.

Agents then confronted Murphy and her boyfriend, the release says. After being read her Miranda rights, she admitted that when she found out her boyfriend was cheating on her with another woman, she plotted to hire a hitman to kill her, authorities said.

At Thursday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that the “hitman” who accepted money from Murphy likely never intended to carry out the murder, the release says.

Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation with assistance from Bedford, Euless, Grapevine and Hurst police.