A U.S. Army sergeant and his brother have been arrested in connection with a failed murder-for-hire plot that killed four people, including two children, inside a Connecticut prison, authorities said.
Jeremiah Peichert, a 30-year-old military man serving a sentence at Corrigan Correctional Center in Uncasville, was arrested Thursday in connection with a conspiracy allegedly concocted by his brother Joshua Peichert in 2022. According to Connecticut State Police.
Joshua allegedly paid his cellmate a search fee to hire a man to kill the 29-year-old woman, her daughters, ages 10 and 1, and her 23-year-old boyfriend.
According to the arrest warrant, Joshua’s cellmate, who is not named in the documents, told investigators that after a short stint in jail with Joshua, the suspect wanted him to kill four people. Told.
The inmate said he knows several people who do the act on the outside for $10,000 each.
According to the arrest warrant, Joshua said he would pay half upfront and the other half when the job was finished. He then revealed the names and addresses of the four men, as well as the location of a duplicate key hidden in his home.
His cellmate told Joshua he would have to pay $500 in finder’s fees ($250 upfront and $250 upon death). According to his arrest warrant, he received $250 through Jeremiah.
Joshua was later released on bail and, according to the arrest warrant, told his former cellmate about “construction work” and “materials.” It is said that these were secret words for murder. However, only two weeks later he came to attack again and asked why he was not killed.
The cellmate then sent the 29-year-old woman a handwritten letter explaining the murder-for-hire plot, and a police investigation began. He also told police he learned Josh had hit him.
According to the arrest warrant, his cellmate testified that he “never intended to hire a hitman or commit any violence,” and that he did not contact anyone to carry out the killing.
Investigators discovered that Joshua asked his brother Jeremiah for money to finish a “construction job,” police said.
Also discovered were numerous conversations between Joshua and Jeremiah, and between Jeremiah and his former cellmate, alluding to the crime.
Connecticut State Police traveled to Texas in December 2023 to meet with Jeremiah. During an interview with authorities, Jeremiah allegedly admitted to sending money to the inmate’s account at the request of his girlfriend’s brother.
According to the arrest warrant, the man told police he didn’t know the details of the plan but knew money was being sent to harm the 29-year-old woman.
“I couldn’t believe that children were going to be involved in this scheme,” he said, according to arrest documents.
Jeremiah claimed he was reluctant to send the money but only did so under pressure from his brother and cellmate, who promised to finish the job within two weeks.
Jeremiah told police Josh had “violent tendencies” that he witnessed from a young age and could be “manipulative.”
Jeremiah was extradited to Connecticut and charged with conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to risk injury to a minor. He is being held on $500,000 bail.
Joshua is also being held in the Connecticut Department of Corrections on similar charges.
