A former US Army sniper and two other ex-American soldiers have been convicted over the contract killing of a real estate agent in the Philippines for an international crime boss who thought the woman had cheated him on a land deal.
Joseph Hunter, a onetime sergeant from Kentucky with a Special Forces background, Adam Samia and Carl David Stillwell were found guilty of murder-for-hire and other charges on Wednesday.
All three had denied they planned the 2012 execution-style hit – a case that’s provided an inside glimpse into the secret fraternity of private mercenaries willing to kill in cold blood for cash.
Joseph Hunter, a onetime sergeant from Kentucky with a Special Forces background, (seen in the custody of Thai police on September 26, 2013) led the group of three contract killers
Adam Samia (left) and Carl David Stillwell were found guilty of murder-for-hire and other charges on Wednesday. They are both pictured in undated police mug shots
‘This horrifying real-life murder-for-hire case included details usually seen in action movies,’ U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said.
‘Hunter, Samia, and Stillwell conspired to end the lives of people overseas whom they had never met.’
Prosecutors said the 52-year-old Hunter was working as a security chief for weapons and drug trafficker Paul Le Roux when he recruited Samia and Stillwell to travel from their homes in Roxboro, North Carolina, to the Philippines for what was called ‘ninja work.’
They said Hunter provided firearms and silencers and told them Le Roux would pay them $35,000 a piece to get the job done.
Samia, 43, and Stillwell, 50, pretended to be potential clients of broker Catherine Lee.
While returning from a trip to the countryside outside of Manila, Samia pulled out a .22-caliber gun and killed the broker by shooting her twice in the face as she sat in the back seat of a van, prosecutors said.
Drug trafficker Paul Le Roux (pictured in an undated mug shot) said he would pay the three men $35,000 for the killings
Lee’s body was found on a pile of garbage on the side of the road.
An investigation turned up a picture on Stillwell’s phone of a bloody head wrapped in a towel that was taken around the time of Lee’s death, authorities said. He also admitted being behind the wheel of the van when she was shot, they added.
Prosecutors said other evidence includes a secretly recorded video of Hunter from a sting in Thailand that resulted in a separate conviction for plotting to kill a Drug Enforcement Administration agent.
They said he’s overheard talking about killing people for Le Roux, including a Filipino real-estate agent.
After being paid, her killers were ordered back to the United States, where they were arrested in 2015.
Defense attorneys asked jurors to keep an open mind, saying the case lacked eyewitness, forensic and other conclusive evidence needed to convict.
They also told them not to trust shady government witnesses like Le Roux, who had pleaded guilty and was cooperating.
All three face up to life in prison. Hunter already is serving 20 years over a plot to kill a DEA agent.
This photo taken at the crime seen show’s Lee’s body after it was dumped by the side of a road