Florida Beautician Arrested After Using PPP Loan To Hire Hitman To Kill Romantic Rival
There’s nothing more American than spending Americans’ tax dollars on a hitman to kill some ho who fucked your ex-boyfriend. In Florida, of course. Via MiamiHerald:
The hitman hired to murder a Miami federal airport officer was paid using a federal payroll protection loan intended to help small businesses during the pandemic, according to newly released court records. The accused mastermind of the plot, Jasmine Martinez, received a $15,000 PPP loan — which she claimed was to keep her single-employee beauty salon afloat — last April. She then withdrew over $10,000 of that in the days leading up to the murder, according to arrest warrants. On May 3, 2021, the accused hitman, an ex-con named Javon Carter, ran up to U.S. Transportation Security Administration officer Le’Shonte Jones as she walked into her South Miami-Dade apartment, shooting her multiple times, according to police.
Detectives believe Martinez, who had a series of run-ins with Jones over the years, paid Carter at least $10,000 to kill the Miami airport worker — a deal they say was bankrolled by money from the federal Payroll Protection Program.
Jones was gunned down in May 2021, after a shift at Miami International Airport, outside the Coral Bay Cove apartments. Her 3-year-old daughter was injured in the shooting. The brazen attack sparked an exhaustive investigation that focused on Jones’ role as a prosecution witness. She had been the victim in an ongoing robbery case that involved Martinez. As outlined in court records, Martinez had a long series of run-ins with Jones.
She’d first been arrested on a battery charge in April 2016, accused of striking Jones, who was dating Martinez’s ex-boyfriend. The case wound up dropped. Martinez was arrested again in 2018, for again beating up Jones. After a court hearing for the case in February 2020, according to police reports, Jones was attacked in the parking lot of Miami’s criminal courthouse by Martinez’s boyfriend, Kelly Nelson.
After Jones’ murder, detectives began reviewing jail phone calls between Nelson, who was jailed, and Martinez, in the months before the killing. In one call, Martinez blurted out that she was “ready to go kill this ho” and said Jones has to “die,” according to the warrant.
[MiamiHerald: The hit on a Miami TSA officer was likely bankrolled by a PPP loan, new records show]
