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Louisiana Man Convicted of Murder-for-Hire Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison

Published February 9, 2022

Louisiana – United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown announced that Steven Marcus Kelley, 48, of West Monroe, Louisiana, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Terry A. Doughty to 120 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, in connection with a murder-for-hire plot. The sentence handed down today was the maximum possible penalty under the law that Kelley could have received.

Following a trial in United States District Court, Kelley was convicted by a federal jury in October 2021. He was found guilty of using an interstate commerce facility to commit murder-for-hire. The charge stemmed from a letter Kelley wrote while imprisoned at Ouachita Correctional Center (OCC) and awaiting trial on rape and molestation charges. Kelley attempted to hire someone to kill his ex-wife, who is the mother of the victims in the sex crimes case, in the letter.

According to evidence presented at the federal trial, Kelley obtained the address of a person in Monroe from another inmate at OCC and mailed the letter to that person. Kelley offered “$10k for the job” for the individual to put “2 in the chest, 2 in the head” and to “make sure it counts,” believing the person who lived at that address would carry out the murder. Kelley drew a map of the area where his ex-wife worked in both blue and black ink. Kelley used another inmate’s name for the return address to avoid the letter and crime being traced back to him. He arranged for the letter to be mailed from OCC by the US Postal Service.

The individual who lived at the address where Kelley mailed the letter received and read the contents of the letter on the night of December 10, 2019. The letter detailed the victim’s physical appearance, the vehicle she drove, where she worked, and her usual commute to work. According to the letter, it “HAS to look like a robbery.” When the individual realized the letter was a request for someone to commit murder, he took it to the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office the next morning. Law enforcement officers obtained surveillance video from OCC, which revealed that Kelley was sitting on his bed writing a letter on December 5, 2019.

In the video, Kelley can be seen alternating between two different pens, which corresponded to the two ink colors used to draw the map. Later that day, Kelley is seen slipping an envelope into the cell of the inmate who provided the address of the hopeful hitman. Kelley sat on the bed of a fellow inmate and addressed the letter. Moments later, the inmate whose name Kelley used on the letter’s return address entered the cell and began conversing with Kelley and the other inmate. That evening, Kelley is seen handing the letter to another inmate, who then hands it to a corrections officer for mailing.

On December 30, 2019, law enforcement officers obtained and executed a search warrant for the Pods at the OCC, where Kelley was housed at the time of the incident. Deputies discovered a blue and black ink pen in Kelley’s belongings. They discovered the address of the person to whom Kelley mailed the letter in the bunk of another inmate.

The FBI, USPS, and the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office investigated the case, which was prosecuted by Assistant US Attorneys Jessica D. Cassidy and Leon H. Whitten.