MYRTLE BEACH — An 18-year-old North Carolina teen pleaded guilty in connection with a murder-for-hire plot that occurred last year against a Longs area teen, according to court records.
Travis Dean Messer, 18, of Sunset Beach, N.C., pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy and two counts of solicitation to commit a felony before Circuit Court Judge Larry Hyman, who sentenced him under the Youthful Offender Act to a sentence not to exceed five years on each charge, according to court records. The sentences will run concurrently.
Charges of kidnapping and attempted murder were dismissed as part of the plea, according to court records.
Charges against another man, Timothy Scott Phelps, 37, of Wytheville, Va., are pending.
Police charged Messer on Aug. 24 and Phelps on Oct. 14 in connection with the incident, in which officers said Messer wanted to pay someone to kill a Longs area teen.
Messer initially contacted an unidentified person offering to pay for the kidnapping of an 18-year-old from Longs in July, according to a North Myrtle Beach department of public safety incident report.
Over several days, Messer contacted the person turned confidential informant saying that he wanted to both kidnap and kill the other teen for “several hundred dollars,” the report showed.
The victim and Messer are acquaintances and police did not say why Messer wanted to kidnap or kill the other teen, according to the report. The person Messer tried to hire contacted police about 3:30 a.m. July 21.
On July 26, the victim and his father were notified and a local agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation was contacted.
Police retrieved all text messages sent by Messer to the person he tried to hire. Police said the incident remains under investigation.
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