Man tries to hire hitman for $13,000 to kill woman he briefly dated, feds say

A Beverly Hills man who tried to hire a hitman to kill a woman he briefly dated had some very specific instructions, federal prosecutors said.

“I’d like it to look like an accident, but robbery gone wrong may work better,” he told the supposed hitman, actually an FBI agent.

“So long as she is dead. I’d also like for her phone to be retrieved and destroyed irreparably in the process,” the man added.

Scott Quinn Berkett, 25, pleaded guilty to a murder-for-hire charge on Monday, June 13, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Central California said in a news release.

Berkett paid $13,000 in bitcoin for the supposed hit on a woman who had rebuffed him, prosecutors said.

He met the woman online in 2020 and she flew to Los Angeles that October to meet him in person, but found his behavior “sexually aggressive,” the release said.

She tried to break off contact with Berkett after returning home, but he continued trying to reach her until someone in her family contacted his father to complain, prosecutors said.

Berkett said she should “consider this matter closed” but reached out online to a website that supposedly offered murder-for-hire services, the release said.

An FBI agent posing as a hitman contacted Berkett in May 2021 and he identified photos of the woman to be killed, prosecutors said. He was arrested after making a final $1,000 payment in bitcoin for the slaying.

Berkett faces up to 10 years in prison.

This story was originally published June 14, 2022 at 11:02 AM with the headline "Man tries to hire hitman for $13,000 to kill woman he briefly dated, feds say."