Jail Inmate Charged With Trying To Hire Hitman
WORTH, Ill. (CBS) -- A man from south suburban Worth has been charged with trying to hire a hitman to kill a female acquaintance, while in the Cook County Jail on charges of harassing the same woman.
Michael Carlson, 59, has been charged with solicitation of murder for hire, after an investigation by the Cook County Sheriff's office.
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Investigators found out that Carlson had been harassing and threatening a female acquaintance, and later found out that Carlson was looking for someone to kill her. The woman has had an order of protection against Carlson since 2004, according to the sheriff's office.
Carlson has been charged several times with harassment and violating an order of protection, and he also has a record for carrying an unlicensed handgun, according to the sheriff's office.
The charges on which Carlson is now being held involved the same woman whom he allegedly tried to have killed. He has been in jail since 2009 for allegedly paying someone to throw a brick through her window, according to the sheriff's office.
Carlson was charged following a sting, in which sheriff's police gang investigators posed as would-be hitmen.
Carlson told investigators he had a "rodent" he wanted "exterminated" and offered them $5,000 to do it, , according to the sheriff's office. When the undercover investigators showed him the woman's picture, Carlson confirmed that it was she whom he wanted killed, according to the sheriff's office.
Authorities have placed Carlson in a maximum security wing of the jail, according to the sheriff's office.
