(MENAFN- Asia Times) Three former US soldiers have been sentenced to life in prison after they were found guilty of being hired to kill a Filipino real-estate agent in the Philippines.
On Wednesday, the Federal District Court in Manhattan found Joseph Hunter, Adam Samia and Carl David Stillwell guilty of killing Filipino real-estate agent Catherine Lee in the Philippines around six years ago, The New York Times reported.
In 2012, Hunter, a former US Army sergeant, was hired by a weapons and drugs trafficker named Paul Le Roux to kill Lee, who Le Roux thought had cheated him. Hunter then hired Samia and Stillwell to carry out the job.
The three men went to the Philippines and killed Lee. Samia allegedly shot Lee twice in the face in the back seat of a van on a trip out of Manila. Samia and Stillwell were paid US$35,000 each for the job and were ordered to return to the US, where they were arrested in 2015.
Le Roux pleaded guilty to the crime and admitted to the court that he hired Hunter to kill Lee because he suspected she had been stealing from him. He cooperated with the government in an effort to reduce the years he would have to serve in jail.
The three men were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
Read: Former US soldiers on trial for killing Filipino real estate agent
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