Army sergeant arrested for helping finance a murder for hire scheme
Sgt. Jeremiah Piekert is alleged to have helped pay for his brother's attempt to hire a hitman.
An Army sergeant was arrested this past week and charged in his involvement in a murder-for-hire scheme involving his brother.
Jeremiah Piekert, 30, was arrested on Thursday, May 2. The Army sergeant was stationed at Fort Cavazos in Texas as part of 4th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery. According to prosecutors, Piekert was trying to help his brother, Joshua Piekert, 32, in a conspiracy to hire a hitman to kill four people, two of them minors.
The alleged plot started while Joshua Piekert was incarcerated at Corrigan Correctional Center in 2022. He asked his cellmate for his help in finding a hitman to carry out the murder of four people. The cellmate played along, saying he knew people who could do so, but it would cost $10,000 per kill. Piekert agreed, and the cellmate asked for a $500 “finder’s fee,” to be paid half up front, half after. Piekert also provided the location of where the four would-be victims would be, and where to find a key to their home.
According to investigators, it was the Army sergeant brother who provided Joshua Piekert with the money for the initial fee.
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The older Piekert spoke with the inmate about the hit under the code of it being a “construction job.” It’s not quite as gullible as using rentahitman.com, but the cellmate apparently played the brothers for some cash. He told authorities he would not actually connect them with a hitman, but instead was hoping to keep the $500 for himself. “At no time did I have any intention of hiring a hitman or committing any violence,” he told investigators, according to court documents.
The four targets included a 29-year-old woman and her kids, a 10-year-old and one-year-old. A 23-year-old man, the woman’s boyfriend, was the fourth target. However the cellmate wrote a letter to the woman, informing her of Joshua Piekert’s intentions. Police began investigating. Ultimately no one was hurt or killed in the would-be murder plot.
Sgt. Jeremiah Piekert was questioned in late 2023 about the case, by Connecticut State Police and an Army Criminal Investigation Division agent. He admitted to knowing the “construction job” was actually a planned hit, and he said he had provided the money for the finder’s fee payment, but denied knowing that kids were among the targets.
The younger Piekert was formally charged on Friday and did not post bail.
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