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Woman Allegedly Tried To Get Hitman To Kidnap Ex's New Girlfriend And Burn Her Alive
Lissette Ortiz wanted her rival killed before Thanksgiving so she couldn't spend the holiday with her ex, authorities say.
A Chicago police officer’s ex-girlfriend allegedly tried to hire a hitman to both kidnap and burn alive the woman she blamed for her relationship’s demise.
Lissette Ortiz, 54, was arrested last week and charged Sunday with solicitation of murder for hire, according to CBS Chicago.
Ortiz is accused of trying to arrange the killing of a 62-year-old woman whom Ortiz believed to have ruined her relationship with her ex-girlfriend Marni Washington, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Washington, a cop, is assigned to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's security detail, CBS Chicago reported.
Washington ended her relationship with Ortiz over the summer, not long after Washington was acquitted of misdemeanor domestic battery against Ortiz, according to the Sun-Times. Washington and the woman Ortiz later allegedly targeted for the hit began dating after that.
Ortiz allegedly offered a handyman either $5,000 to kidnap the woman or $500 plus a television set if the handyman could connect her to someone who could do the deed, according to the Sun-Times.
The handyman did indeed connect her to someone – an undercover cop, police said.
Fearing she would be identified as a suspect in a kidnapping, Ortiz escalated her plan to a murder-for-hire plot, authorities said. Ortiz told the undercover officer on Nov. 20 that she wanted him to kidnap and bring the victim to a remote location, authorities said, according to CBS Chicago.
She asked for the woman to be set on fire in her car and noted she preferred her to be burned alive and wanted her intended victim to know she was responsible before her death, according to officials.
She even wanted the woman dead before Thanksgiving, so her intended victim couldn’t spend the holiday with her ex, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Jack Costello told the Sun-Times.
Ortiz was arrested during her second meeting with the undercover police officer, after telling the officer she was planning to leave the area, according to authorities; she allegedly planned to flee to Puerto Rico after the murder.
Ortiz's lawyer Courtney Smallwood said her client is accusing the handyman who turned her in to police of extortion and assault and has also accused her intended victim of molestation.
Ortiz, a mother of two, has previously been convicted of theft and forgery. She’s currently being held without bail and her next court date is set for next Monday.
