$1 million bond for inmate charged with trying to hire hit man
Bond was set at $1 million on Friday for a Lake County Jail inmate charged with attempting to hire a hit man to kill a witness against him, the Lake County Sheriff's Department said.
On Thursday, Jonathan Velazquez, 34, of the 0-100 block of Sandhurst Road, Mundelein, was charged with solicitation of murder for hire and solicitation for murder, both Class X felonies.
He was in jail on a criminal sexual assault charge, over a crime that occurred in Mundelein.
In a news release put out Friday afternoon, authorities said the Lake County Sheriff's Gang Task Force detectives learned of the murder plot and began an investigation.
When Velazquez made formal arrangements to pay a hitman more than $1,000 to murder the witness, the “hitman” was actually an informant working with detectives, police said.
He is due next in court at 9 a.m. July 9, in courtroom C-120.