A jilted Kentucky cafe manager tempted an employee with a pay raise and a pickup truck to murder his ex-girlfriend's former husband.
Prosecutors recommended a 40-year prison sentence for Freddy Gonzalez, 40, of Bowling Green, Kentucky, according to a sentencing memorandum filed Thursday and reviewed by the Lawyer Herald.
Gonzalez and his co-defendant, Xavier Posey, pleaded guilty to knowingly possessing a firearm in furtherance of murder for hire, in connection with the 2020 killing of Brian Russell, 43, at his home in Franklin, Kentucky.
Gonzalez was Posey's boss at a cafe.
At the time, Gonzalez began dating the victim's ex-wife, until she broke up with him eight months into their relationship in October 2020. The victim's ex-wife – identified in court records as M.R. – then rekindled her romance with Russell.
M.R. went back and forth between the victim and suspect before ending things with Gonzalez for good in December of that same year.
During the final two months of their relationship, "Gonzalez obsessively stalked M.R. He deluged her with text messages, surreptitiously placed a digital tracking device on her car, surveilled her, and staged 'random' encounters with her," prosecutors wrote, according to the documents. He also threatened to kill the victim.
"Gonzalez decided that the only way to get M.R. back was to eliminate the competition by murdering" her ex. "Gonzalez had told M.R. on numerous occasions that he did not believe he could prevail in a physical altercation" with the victim, "so Gonzalez decided to hire someone else to commit the murder," the filing stated.
Gonzalez offered Posey – his employee and a drug user – $2,000, a pay raise and a pickup truck in exchange for the murder of Russell. He also further enticed Posey by alleging Russell was a drug dealer who probably had marijuana and meth at his house.
Posey agreed to the murder-for-hire plot and Gonzalez supplied the gun and ammo.
On Dec. 29, 2020, Gonzalez texted M.R. to make sure her ex-husband would be home alone all night and the following morning.
The next day, Posey – high on meth – showed up at Russell's doorstep, stating that he had car trouble and needed to borrow jumper cables.
Russell opened the door and Posey fired off three rounds into the victim, killing him, according to the records.
Cell phone records and surveillance footage were among the evidence that tied the defendants to the crime scene.
