Three ex-US soldiers on trial for contract killing of Philippines property agent
Broker Catherine Lee’s body was found on a pile of garbage in 2012 with gunshot wounds to the face
A former US Army sniper and two other ex-American soldiers agreed to become contract killers for an international crime boss who wanted to settle a score with a real property agent in the Philippines he thought had cheated him on a land deal, a prosecutor said in opening statements at the trial of the three men.
Joseph Hunter, a one-time sergeant with a Special Forces background, Adam Samia and Carl David Stillwell have denied they planned the 2012 execution-style hit – a case that’s provided an inside glimpse into the secret fraternity of private mercenaries willing to kill in cold blood for cash.
Prosecutors said the 52-year-old Hunter was working as a security chief for weapons and drug trafficker Paul Le Roux when he recruited Samia and Stillwell to travel from their homes in Roxboro, North Carolina, to the Philippines for what was called “ninja work”.
Hunter provided firearms and silencers and told them Le Roux would pay them US$35,000 a piece to get the job done, Assistant US Attorney Patrick Egan said in federal court in Manhattan Tuesday.
The broker, Catherine Lee, was on a “kill list” that self-styled assassins with military backgrounds saw as a golden opportunity, Egan said.
“If Paul Le Roux wanted somebody killed, these guys got the call,” he said.
“For these men, more murders meant more money.”
