Not Guilty Plea By Salisbury Man In Murder-For-Hire Plot

SALEM, MA -- A Salisbury man accused of plotting to kill his victim and her mother in a separate child rape pleaded not guilty on a charge of solicitation to commit murder Friday. In October, Scott Smith, 38, was moments away from being released on bail to live with his mother in Danvers when prosecutors filed an emergency order to have him held as the plans to hire a contract killer came to light.

Smith, according to prosecutors, believed his victim "screwed up [my] life" and was trying to arrange to pay someone $30,000 to kill the teenage girl and her mother. Investigators say Smith discussed the plans with another inmate at the Middleton Jail where he was being held in June.

Massachusetts State Police filed a charge of solicitation to commit murder against Smith. Smith was arrested earlier this year on child pornography charges, prompting two teenage girls to come forward to say they had been sexually abused by him.

Smith told another inmate he wanted the girl's death to look like a drug overdose and her mother's death to look like a car accident. He was trying to arrange the murders before he was even charged with child rape, according to court documents.

Smith was cleared to live with his mother in Danvers on $1,000 bail and with a requirement to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet by Salem Superior Court Judge Timothy Feeley. The allegations that Smith tried to hire someone to kill his victims while in the Middleton jail came after last October's hearing where Feeley set bail. But Feeley released Smith despite agreeing with prosecutors that he still posed a danger.

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Patch file photo via Shutterstock.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).