MONROE, La. (KTVE/KARD) — On Tuesday, October 26, 2021, 48-year-old Steven Marcus Kelley was convicted in a murder-for-hire plot. On December 16, 2020, Kelley was indicted by a grand jury and charged with use of facility of interstate commerce in the commission of murder-for-hire.
The charge stemmed from a letter Kelley wrote while awaiting trial in the Ouachita Correctional Center for the rape and molestation of his then 12-year-old and 8-year-old stepdaughters. In the letter, Kelley attempted to hire someone to murder his ex-wife, who is the mother of the victims in his sex crimes case.
Kelley obtained an address from another inmate at the Ouachita Correctional Center, believing the individual who received the letter would carry out the murder. According to reports, Kelley offered the individual approximately $10,000 for the job and instructed them to put “two bullets to the chest” and “two bullets in the head.”
Kelley drew a map with blue and black ink of the area where his ex-wife worked. Also, Kelley used another inmate’s name for the return address to avoid the letter and crime being traced back to him.
On the night of December 10, 2019, the person who lived at the address where Kelley mailed the letter, received and read the letter. The letter provided a physical description of Kelley’s ex-wife, the vehicle she drove, where she worked, and her daily schedule of when she arrives to work. The letter also instructed that the incident had to look like a robbery.
Once the individual reading the letter realized it was a letter for someone to commit a murder, the person took the letter to the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office the next morning. Officers were able to gain access of the Ouachita Correctional Center surveillance video and displayed Kelley was sitting on his bed writing a letter on December 5, 2019.
Kelley was seen alternating two pens which is consistent with the two ink colors used to draw the map. Later that day, Kelley can be seen taking an envelope into the cell of the inmate who provided the address of the possible hitman. Later that evening, he can be seen giving the letter to another inmate who gave it to a correctional officer for mailing.
On December 30, 2019, deputies executed a search warrant for Kelley and found a blue and black pen in Kelley’s belongings. They also found the mailing address on the other inmate’s bunk.
Kelley faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine up to $250,000.