Texan offered Marine $25G to kill ex-girlfriend after she started dating black man
A Texas man offered $10,000 to a Marine pal to kill his ex-girlfriend for dating a black man, and another $15,000 to watch him “put a bullet in her head,” according to police and reports.
Keith Cote slapped the cash advance on the table and offered him the racially-charged hit job he described as “dirty work, done dirt cheap” during an Oct. 8 meetup at his Austin home.
The 62-year-old had approached the combat veteran at a University of Texas tailgate the day before about “something very serious.” He believed he had killed before — and could do it again, the Austin Statesman reported, citing court papers.
The retired service member only pretended to indulge Cote’s slay plot after going to Travis County Sheriff’s Office with his plans. He wore a microphone at times to help law enforcement build their case, according to those documents.
Authorities, meanwhile, spoke to the woman Cote wanted dead.
“When asked why she believed Mr. Cote would want her killed, she confirmed that Mr. Cote is a racist, and that she is now dating a black man,” the court documents read, according to the Statesman.
“She stated that the only thing Mr. Cotes hates more than a black man was a white woman who is with a black man.”
The woman, also unidentified, ditched him as late as 2015 due to his abusive treatment.
She believed Cote would have killed her himself if he could, citing a fall at a strip club near Houston that left him paralyzed and unable to carry out his sinister scheme, the report read.
Her suspicions were not unfounded.
Cote revealed to the Marine that he would have stabbed her in the heart with an ice pick after learning she was dating someone new.
Authorities swooped in to apprehend Cote early Monday. He was charged with soliciting to commit capital murder and was booked into the Travis County Jail, where he remains on a $1 million bond, records show.