Polk Man Awaiting Trial Hires Hit Man, Gets Undercover Detective

WINTER HAVEN, FL – If you’re thinking of hiring a hit man, you might want to be careful who you ask. Richard Palmer, 26, learned that lesson the hard way.

While awaiting trial in Polk County on charges of lewd and lascivious conduct with girl younger than age 12, Palmer asked his cellmate to help him find someone to kill the star witness in the case against him – the girl he molested, who is now 16, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

Palmer reportedly told his cellmate he was willing to give the hit man $15,000 and a sports car to kill the girl and two other witnesses, the victim’s mother and aunt, and then burn down their house.

The cellmate agreed and then went straight to the sheriff’s office and revealed Palmer’s plan. He even showed investigators a hand-drawn map to the victim’s home and a layout of the home’s interior that Palmer gave him, according to the sheriff’s office.

The hit man who agreed to accept Palmer’s offer turned out to be an undercover detective.

“Just when you think this man can’t get any lower, after being arrested for doing horrible things to a child, now he’s trying to hire someone to kill her and the witnesses,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement.

Now, in addition to the lewd and lascivious charge, Palmer is charged with solicitation to commit murder and arson.

Judd said he hopes the judge throws the book at Palmer.

“This is as bad an individual, as mean an individual that has ever walked the face of the earth,” said Judd. “Our goal is that he never have a breath of air outside of prison.”

Image via Polk County Sheriff