Inmate Uses Stimulus Check To Hire Hitman To Murder Ex-Girlfriend: Police

A 28-year-old man in Salt Lake City, Utah has been charged after he attempted to use his stimulus check to hire a hitman to kill his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend while he was in jail for stalking the same woman.

Lorenzo Gutierrez was charged with two counts of criminal solicitation to commit murder — a first degree felony — before the 3rd District Court Wednesday, KSL 5 reported.

While incarcerated at the Salt Lake County Jail, Gutierrez offered another inmate meth, heroin and $10,000 cash in exchange for killing his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. He also asked his inmate to provide him with photos of the act, according to charging documents.

Deputies from the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office allegedly placed a recording device in Gutierrez's cell and recorded him talking to his cellmate about wanting to "smoke" and "stomp out" the unnamed woman and several other people. Gutierrez "wanted things handled while he was in jail so that he wouldn't be a suspect," the documents said.

Investigators reportedly used a confidential informant to give Gutierrez the name of a fictitious person that was willing to carry out his request. At the direction of Gutierrez, the informant wrote a letter to the fictional hitman, who was actually an undercover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Gutierrez had called the undercover agent from prison several times and discussed plans to have his former girlfriend killed, according to the documents. He allegedly offered the agent a car title as a down payment. In June 2020, he offered his government-issued stimulus check as another down payment.

Gutierrez urged the hitman to get the plan coordinated with his friend after the mother of his child served him with custody papers in late June saying, "He was not happy about it," the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported, citing court documents.

After being transferred to Utah State Prison, Gutierrez reportedly started to finalize his plan by sending a letter to his friend detailing what had to be done, but it was unclear if the letter had murder plans. He also allegedly tried to initiate payment through his friend.

Gutierrez has been convicted twice of stalking the woman, who obtained a permanent stalking injunction against him in March 2020, according to official documents.