12 years for former nurse in bitcoin murder-for-hire scheme

A former Loyola University Medical Center nurse accused of using the dark web to hire a hitman to kill her former lover's wife pleaded guilty Tuesday in DuPage County court to attempted first-degree murder.

Tina Jones entered the plea in exchange for a 12-year prison sentence. She must serve 85% of that sentence.

Jones, formerly of the 700 block of River Road in Des Plaines, originally was charged with four counts of solicitation of murder for hire, two counts of solicitation of murder and attempted first-degree murder. She faced a maximum of 60 years in prison if convicted of the most serious offenses.

Prosecutors alleged Jones paid more than $12,000 in bitcoin to the Cosa Nostra International Network in January 2018 to kill a Woodridge woman who works as a clinical social worker in Naperville.

The website, however, was found to be a scam. The CBS television program "48 Hours" discovered the contract between Jones and the website while researching another story and alerted Woodridge police, authorities said.

In her "kill order," officials said, Jones gave the hitman instructions to make sure her lover was unharmed. She also provided a schedule for when her lover would be at work and when his wife would be alone.

Jones said to make it look like an accident.

In a news conference after Tuesday's hearing, DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said the steps Jones took to hire someone to kill her lover's wife were substantial enough to merit prosecution - even though the website was a scam.

Jones communicated repeatedly with the website's administrator over several months, Berlin said, including sending a picture of the victim, the victim's husband's work schedule, the address of the victim, and three installment payments for the hit.

"It just shows how sinister and evil and premeditated this defendant was," Berlin said.

Although his office has dealt with cryptocurrency before, "it is certainly very rare," Berlin said. "This is the first case we have dealt with the dark web."

Berlin thanked "48 Hours" for bringing Jones' efforts to the attention of law enforcement. "Who knows what would have happened otherwise," he said.

If Jones had gone through a trial and been convicted, she could have been sentenced to as many as 60 years in prison.

Berlin said the victim was consulted throughout the plea process and was satisfied with the 12-year sentence.

"Twelve years is a severe sentence for this 33-year-old with no (criminal) background," he said.

"Tina Jones thought only of herself when she made all of these efforts to murder this innocent victim," he said.

Assistant State's Attorney Demetri Demopoulos was the lead prosecutor on the case.

Jones was represented by Stephen Hall.