Tina Jones, who was arrested for attempting to hire a hitman to murder a woman alleged to of had an affair with her husband, has hit the headlines once more. This time, George Bakalis, , the DuPage County Judge, ordered the suspect to remain with the GPS monitoring device she has been wearing after she was given the conditions of bail.
Jones has been living with her parents in Georgia with the strict condition not to leave the county unless attending the court hearings in Illinois. The bail terms also order her not to be in Illinois for more than twenty-four hours. This was in accordance with the conditions set to monitor her whereabouts as she awaits her final hearing and sentencing.
The federal court charged the suspect with four counts for conspiring murder for hire. She was also charged with plotting to have wife of her former lover killed, which was deemed first-degree murder. According to the court documents, all the charges against Jones are grouped in Class X felonies. Basically, this means that, if she is found guilty by the court, she will be ineligible to file for probation. In that case, if she is found guilty of the offenses, Jones faces a maximum sentence of forty years behind bars.
In the recent legal proceeding filed by Stephen Hall, her attorney, Jones requested the court to have the monitoring device removed. This was a request to relieve her from the financial strains that she has been experiencing due to the fee charged by the GPS company provider of about $10 every day. According to the documents filed by her attorney, they claim that she has spent over $2,000 since April 23, when the court ruled she be released on bail.
According to Hall, all the other condition given by the court on his client’s bail can remain in effect. He continued to say that Jones has been observing the set bond obligations and the family has been supporting her tremendously. Her family members travelled with her to the court hearing in Illinois, thus ensuring she has reformed for the better, the court was told.
However, Judge Bakalis was quick to deny their request to have the GPS monitoring device program revoked. Instead, he directed the court clerk’s department to use the money that the suspect had paid as bail to pay for the GPS monitoring device. This would mean that the court will supply the device bill every month of about $300 until the program is no longer valid in accordance with the court.
According to the prosecutors, the suspect had the guts to pay more than $10,000 worth of bitcoin to a darknet website to hire a hitman. This clearly showed that she is able to pay for the GPS device program, and there may be a hidden agenda in requesting the device to be removed.
The website, Cosa Nostra, which offered the hitman for hire service on the dark web, however, was found to be a mere scam, taking advantage of unsuspecting victims. The scam was discovered by a CBS investigative program, known as “48 Hours;” they immediately alerted the Woodridge police detectives to further the investigation.
In the initial investigation that led to her arrest, the suspect had given a kill order explaining the target exclusively. The police detectives were able to intercept and thwart all the possible planned dangers to the suspect. For now, Jones is expected to return to the court for the next hearing on February 13, 2019.
In the recent past, the suspect, with her attorney, has been filling a number of pleas to the court. Recently, the same judge rejected a motion to have the presented evidence against Jones removed and suppressed completely. The suspect has also undergone a vigorous drug test to see if she was using drugs in the course of her hearing. She was explicitly tested for opioids in her body, and she tested positive for the drugs. The suspect has in the past denied any allegation of being involved with hiring a hitman from the dark web to kill a woman.
She has been a perfect example of a victim from a hitman for hire site from the dark web. Nonetheless, she will have to face the full force of the law.