A Levittown, N.Y. man was sentenced to life in prison for a revenge plot he attempted to orchestrate in order to have a federal prosecutor and judge decapitated.
The Associated Press reported that Joseph Romano was convicted on charges that he gave orders to have the prosecutor and judge beheaded. He also ordered that the prosecutor’s breasts be cut off and that the body parts be preserved in formaldehyde as proof that both people were dead.
On Monday, the defendant claimed that he was framed by federal agents involved in an undercover sting operation.
"I don't care what sentence you give me as long as I know one thing: I'm innocent," Romano told a federal court judge.
He continued to talk for almost hour in court about how he was really a victim in the case.
The New York Daily News noted that two years ago, the 51-year-old became so irate over a 15-year sentence he received that he began plotting his revenge from jail.
His threats were reported by a jailhouse informant, who secretly recorded a meeting where Romano accepted his offer to contact a hit man. He enlisted the man to carry out the gruesome killings in exchange for $40,000, but the “hit man” he hired turned out be an undercover Suffolk County detective.