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Nicole Faccenda, 44, sobbed in the Newark courtroom as U.S. District Judge Faith S. Hochberg also ordered her to pay $19,292 in restitution and remain under supervised released for three years after serving her prison term.
Because it’s federal court, Faccenda will have to serve nearly all of the prison sentence.
Faccenda pleaded guilty to the crime in October 2012 and had remained free on bail pending today’s sentencing.
On recordings a federal agent says were made outside the Clifton Red Robin, Faccenda said she didn’t want the girlfriend’s children harmed, but if something happened to them, “well, I’m sorry.”
Faccenda also said she didn’t want her ex-boyfriend dead, “but he can be shot in the foot.”
She also was recorded by an undercover investigator with the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms saying that she wanted to “piss on (the girlfriend’s) grave and … spit on the casket.”
The 1987 graduate of St. Joseph’s High School in West New York had been with her ex for awhile and had a child with him. But he ended the relationship in the summer of 2011 and moved in with the other woman, who had kids of her own.
Faccenda called a friend in Florida asking for help finding a hit man to whack her, a federal complaint on file in Newark says. She said she was willing to pay $10,000 to $20,000 and “had a black outfit ready for the girl’s funeral.”
The man immediately contacted federal authorities and agreed to help the ATF.
Two days later, the contact called Faccenda from New Jersey, saying he’d found someone to do the job. They were supposed to meet at her job in Mahwah the next day, but Faccenda changed the location to the nearby A&P.
During a secretly recorded get-together, Faccenda said she had “watched a lot of Lifetime movies and wanted to make sure that the undercover hitman was not a cop,” the federal complaint says. The undercover agent then asked her if she was sure, because there would be no turning back.
“That’s not even an issue,” she responded.
Faccenda said she had “thought about this for a long time and has played every scenario through her head how she wants the job done, such as forcing the victim girlfriend’s car off the road, someone just coming up to her and taking her out, or going into the victim-girlfriend’s house with a silencer and taking them all out.
“Faccenda said she could do the job herself but that she doesn’t want to get her hands on anything,” the complaint says.
The ATF says Faccenda gave the undercover agent the woman’s address, job and what time she left for work. She also said the would-be victim “was alone in the house in the morning after her boyfriend goes to work.”
Faccenda told the agent she was concerned about the timing because she had a court date with her ex and “it may look fishy” if something happened before then. She also said if the “hitman” wasn’t up to it, there was “a person in North Carolina she knew who might do the job.”
The complaint says Faccenda was quoted a price of $5,000 up front and another five grand after the deed was done.
Her response: “That’s it? 10?”
Faccenda and her friend from Florida sat in her car outside the Red Robin restaurant in Clifton as agents nearby recorded their conversation, the complaint says. She told her friend she would give him, and not the “hitman” an envelope with cash because she didn’t want it traced to her.
Faccenda then arranged a meeting at the Olive Garden in Secaucus, where she’d hand over $2,500 as a down payment on the hit, the complaint says.
Soon after, Faccenda called her friend from the Exxon station next to the restaurant off Route 3, it says. As ATF agents watched, the friend walked over to the service station parking lot and up to Faccenda’s white Infiniti.
Faccenda rolled down the window and handed the man a small manila envelope with $2,000 in cash inside, then sped off, the ATF complaint says. In a recorded phone call the next day, Faccendola said she would produce the remaining $500 when she saw a photograph of the woman dead.
Through the night and into the early morning hours, Faccenda texted her friend, who reminded her that “once the hitman leaves to go do the murder there will be no more communication until the (woman) was dead,” the complaint says.
“Okay,” Faccenda responded. “Got you.”
When the fateful day arrived, her friend called Faccenda at her job in Mahwah and told her “the hitman had shot the victim-girlfriend in the head and made it look like a robbery.”
Moments later, ATF agents moved in and arrested her.
U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman credited special agents of the ATF for their work on the case, which was prosecuted by Special Litigation Counsel Serina M. Vash of his Criminal Division in Newark.
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