Two Florida Department of Corrections employees and one former employee, who are all believed to be members of a Ku Klux Klan group, are accused of plotting to kill a former black inmate.
The Tallahassee Democrat reports that it was an FBI informant who told police about the alleged murder plot. The three men - Thomas Jordan Driver, 25, Charles Thomas Newcomb, 42, and David Elliot Moran, 47 - were charged with conspiracy to commit murder. They were arrested Thursday.
The men were allegedly plotting to murder the former inmate after the man got into a fight with Driver, who worked at the Reception and Medical Center in Lake Butler, Florida. Moran also worked there and Newcomb was a former employee. Both Driver and Moran were fired after they were arrested.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said that they planned to kill the former inmate with insulin, then stick a fishing pole in his hand. They hoped to make it look like the inmate drowned, reports WJXX/WTLV. Bondi said that investigators actually staged the inmate’s murder to trick the suspects into believing that the inmate was already shot.
Authorities say that all three suspects are members of the Traditional American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, based in Columbia County. Newcomb was even described as the leader of the group.
If convicted, the suspects could be sentenced to 30 years in prison.