New Jersey man admits he wanted hitman to kill his child porn victim

A New Jersey man who exchanged sexually explicit videos and images with a 13-year-old New York girl admitted to paying $20,000 in Bitcoin to kill a child victim before ultimately canceling it.

John Michael Musbach, 31, of Haddonfield, pleaded guilty Thursday to using interstate trading facilities to carry out murder-for-hire, according to federal prosecutors. He now faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on June 13.

Musbach began online communication with the victim in the summer of 2015. Musbach eventually began using these chats to request and receive sexually explicit videos and photos of the girl, as well as send her similar videos and images of herself, but the girl’s parents discovered the nature of the chats and notified local law enforcement in New York State where they lived.

He was arrested on charges of possession of child pornography in March 2016 and eventually pleaded guilty to endangering children in October 2017. He was sentenced to two years of probation and parole.

In May 2016, Musbach began talking to the administrator of a murder-for-hire website on the dark web while his criminal case was pending, according to officials. After prosecutors asked if the girl was too young to be targeted and replied that age was not an issue, Musbach paid about $20,000 in bitcoins for the attack.

When he was demanded an additional $5,000 to secure the hit, Musbach eventually tried to cancel it and demanded a refund of his $20,000. The website administrator then reported that the site was a scam and threatened to reveal Musbach’s information to law enforcement.

On Thursday, federal prosecutors did not elaborate on how the conspiracy was uncovered. But at the time of his 2020 indictment, prosecutors said the whistleblower passed messages between Musbah and a fake website about contract killings to the Department of Homeland Security.