Las Cruces Man Pleads Guilty to Commissioning a Murder-for-Hire

ALBUQUERQUE – Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, and Jeffrey C. Boshek II, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, announced today that Leif Everett Hayman pled guilty to one count of use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-to-hire. Hayman, 33, of Las Cruces, will remain in custody pending sentencing, which has not been scheduled.

A federal grand jury indicted Hayman on July 20, 2022. According to publicly available court records, between April 10, 2022, and continuing through May 11, 2022, Hayman solicited a hitman to murder his girlfriend's mother by submitting three service requests on the website "rentahitman.com." In his first service request, Hayman stated that he wanted to “hurt” the victim and wrote “I want her gone now, too much that I don’t like about her she’s controlling my wife.” As part of these service requests, Hayman provided the website with the identity of the intended victim including the victim's physical address and photographs of the victim and stated, “this is the target person if you don’t do it I will do it myself I’m already thinking about just doing it myself I want her gone now.” Following those three service requests, Hayman sent numerous follow-up emails to the website between April 20 and May 2, 2022. In those emails, Leif expressed that he was losing patience with how long the process was taking.

On May 5, 2022, an ATF agent, acting in an undercover capacity contacted Hayman. During the conversation, Hayman expressed that he wanted the victim “gone off the Earth.” The agent and Hayman discussed various ways to carry out the killing including the use of a gun, baseball bat, knives, and rocks. On May 6, 2022, Hayman followed up with the undercover agent via text message and provided him with the victim's physical address and a photograph. On May 9, 2022, Hayman had a telephone conversation with the undercover agent. During that call, Hayman indicated to the agent that he lived with staff and that the undercover agent/hitman would also have to harm his caretaker in order for him to leave the home. Hayman ultimately agreed to pay the undercover agent/hitman approximately $200 to murder the victim.

On May 11, 2022, the undercover agent went to Hayman’s house under the auspices of picking him up to carry out the hit on the victim. When the agent showed up, Hayman emerged from the residence with his caretaker in tow. Hayman indicated to the agent that he wanted something done to the caretaker and stated to the agent "this is part of the deal." The caretaker and Hayman began shoving each other and the undercover agent aborted the operation and drove away.

At sentencing, Hayman faces up to 10 years in prison.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maria Y. Armijo and Ry Ellison are prosecuting the case.

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