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Orange County resident Reshma Massarone, age 40, of Pine Bush, a hamlet of Crawford, was sentenced to 9.5 years in prison and three years of post-release supervision on Wednesday, Aug. 28, said Damian Williams, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
“The defendant devised a chilling plan to have a member of her own family murdered for the low price of ten thousand dollars," said Williams. "Her plan was unthinkably heartless. For this depraved crime, Reshma Massarone will spend 114 months in federal prison.”
According to the complaint, indictment, and statements made in court between Thursday, July 20, 2023, and Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023, Massarone plotted with an "individual" to hire a hitman in exchange for $10,000.
The "individual" was a member of a foreign police force, and he became an undercover law enforcement agent to develop evidence against Massarone that she was plotting to hire a hitman to have the victim murdered.
During the month, Massarone exchanged dozens of messages on social media and participated in numerous phone calls with the fake hitman, imploring him to murder her brother-in-law or hire someone who would.
In Facebook Messenger texts, Massarone said he wired $2,500 as a down payment on the $10,000 and told him she had other "jobs" for him if he "got this right."
The victim was never murdered. As time passed and the victim remained alive, Massarone grew impatient with the hitman and suggested he use rat poison. When he still didn't kill her brother-in-law, she texted: “Either way, if I find somebody to do the job, you’re going to get blame, so cut the bullshit and let’s get it done.”
Williams praised the outstanding work of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New York City Police Department, New York State Police, Homeland Security Investigations, and Internal Revenue Service.
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