Buffalo Grove man held on murder for hire charge

A Buffalo Grove man was just a few weeks away from completing a jail sentence for domestic violence-related charges when authorities say he was caught arranging the murder of his victim.

Mikhail “Mike” Gelzin, 53, is being held on $1 million bond on murder for hire charges, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart said in a release Saturday.

Gelzin has been serving a 180-day sentence for repeatedly violating the terms of an order of protection filed against him after a 2009 domestic battery arrest in Wilmette, police said. Since that 2009 arrest, Wilmette police have arrested Gelzin for calling, e-mailing and driving past the home of his victim.

Gelzin, who has been serving his sentence in a minimum-security division of the Cook County Jail, was scheduled to appear in court again on March 2 when he could have been released from jail.

However, authorities say investigators with the Cook County Sheriff's Criminal Intelligence Unit learned Gelzin was actively seeking someone to kill the woman he had been arrested on charges of battering and harassing.

An undercover officer posed as a hitman. On Thursday, Gelzin agreed to provide the officer with $15,000 in cash in exchange for the murder of the woman, police say. Gelzin then asked to lower the price and agreed to pay the undercover officer $12,000.

Police say Gelzin, who was born in Russia, said he had planned to flee the country and live overseas as soon as he left jail.

He appeared in bond court Saturday. He will now be transferred to a maximum security division of the jail while he awaits trial, due to the severity of the new criminal charge.

Solicitation of murder for hire is a class X felony, punishable by up to 30 years in prison.