Woman Tried Hiring Hitmen To Kill Ex-Husband's Family: SCDA

RIVERHEAD, NY — A Huntington Station woman was indicted for attempting to hire hitmen to kill two of her ex-husband’s family members, Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini and the Suffolk County Police Department said on Tuesday.

Elsy Rodriguez-Garcia, 25, is charged with two counts of first-degree attempted murder (an A-1 felony) and two counts of second-degree conspiracy (a class B felony).

Rodriguez-Garcia's targets were her ex-husband’s 57-year-old mother and 5-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, Sini said.

"These were clearly not empty threats; this was a cold, calculated decision to have two people murdered, one of whom is a 5-year-old child," Sini said via press release. "Thankfully this plot came to the attention of law enforcement before it was successfully carried out, and the detectives on this case took immediate steps to ensure the safety of the targets and to prevent these two murders from taking place."

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart added: "Even though her plan was revealed before it was carried out, individuals like Rodriguez-Garcia don’t usually stop until they get what they want. I would like to commend the investigators on this case who ensured Rodriguez-Garcia was brought to justice before anyone was hurt."

Earlier this month, Rodriguez-Garcia contacted a co-conspirator via WhatsApp to orchestrate the murders of the two targets, Sini said. She asked the co-conspirator to hire hitmen to commit the murders in Ecuador, where she believed the two targets were visiting, Sini said. According to Sini, Rodriguez-Garcia provided photographs of the targets to the co-conspirator, as well as a description of the house she thought they were staying.

"What’s even more disturbing is that the photo she sent was the child’s kindergarten graduation photo," Sini said. "That was the image she chose to identify her victim, the little girl who she wanted to have murdered for her own selfish reasons."

Rodriguez-Garcia agreed to pay $6,000 for the murders, which she would wire to the hitmen once she received proof the killings were carried out, Sini said.

Rodriguez-Garcia’s ex-husband became aware of the murder-for-hire plot and reported the threat to the Suffolk County Police Department, authorities said. The District Attorney’s office and the Suffolk County Police Department investigated the conspiracy.

During the investigation, a doctored photo was sent by the co-conspirator to Rodriguez-Garcia as “proof” that the murders had been carried out, Sini said. The photo, which was created by the Suffolk County Police Department’s Identification Section, appeared to show a dead woman and child in the countryside of Ecuador.

Rodriguez-Garcia was arrested on July 13.

She was arraigned on the indictment on Tuesday, and her bail was set at $750,000 cash or $1.5 million bond. She is due back in court on Sept. 4.

If Rodriguez-Garcia is convicted of the top count, she faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.