A twisted brother and sister in Mississippi plotted to hire a hitman to kill their stepfather in order to steal his $1.75 million trust and “dry their mother's blood once and for all,” authorities said.
Joshua D. Bryan, 29, and Regan E. Bryan, 30, were sentenced to prison terms Tuesday for their roles in a murder-for-hire scheme that also targeted his life insurance policy, the U.S. District of Southern District said. Announced by the Prosecutor's Office. Mississippi.
According to court documents, the sick plot was discovered in December 2020 when a confidential informant met with Regan and claimed that his stepfather had sexually abused him in the past and wanted him dead.
The informant then offered to kill him for $5,000 to “take care of him for the rest of his life,” according to the criminal complaint.
The informant then told his stepfather about the brother-sister plot, but continued to meet with Regan and Joshua for several months and secretly recorded their conversations about the plot to kill Regan, according to the complaint.
In a recorded conversation, the informant asked Joshua for the go-ahead for the execution, and Joshua told him to “do what you see fit,” court documents state. The brothers then talked about their alibis and how they would pay the hired hitman.
The brothers were listed as beneficiaries of a $1.75 million trust that their stepfather was supposed to inherit from their grandmother. They told the informant that she and Joshua would rather “bleed their mother's blood” and take all her wealth than watch her stepfather, the main beneficiary, scrape together the money.
Joshua and Regan were arrested in January 2021 following an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Regan was sentenced to 65 months in prison for conspiracy to commit murder, to which he had previously pleaded guilty, while Joshua was found guilty by a jury in December of the same charge and sentenced to 120 months in prison.
