Authorities in Pennsylvania have charged a 38-year-old man with orchestrating a murder-for-hire in which he allegedly paid a 14-year-old boy cash and drugs last year to kill a street rival as an act of revenge.
The suspect, Calvin Jay Huffman, was already jailed on unrelated felony charges and now faces one count of solicitation to commit murder, with prosecutors seeking the death penalty.
Prosecutors allege Huffman paid 14-year-old Antonyo Owens $5,000 in cash and three large bags of marijuana to kill 38-year-old Anthony Jones in order to settle a dispute over narcotics, according to reports.
Once the plan was set, police said Owens allegedly gunned down Jones near Cavalry Methodist Church in Uniontown on the morning of June 6, 2023.
Following the killing, Huffman allegedly paid his other associates to help Owens avoid capture, but the teen was apprehended after five days and charged as an adult. He now faces trial for criminal homicide.
“This is a crime that had a profound impact on the community last year when this occurred, the effects of which are still felt to this day,” Aubele said, according to KDKA News. “That afternoon, an already disadvantaged community witnessed an execution in broad daylight carried out by a teenager. It is sobering to think that this crime was even more disturbing than we originally believed at the time.”
An unidentified individual came forward in March 2024 with digital evidence allegedly showing that Owens received money and drugs as payment to commit the killing.
The Fayette County District Attorney’s Office confirmed on Facebook that it was planning to file “a notice of aggravating circumstances against the defendant, and if he is convicted, we will be seeking the death penalty.”
“We are alleging that at the time of Anthony Jones’ murder, Huffman was in a dispute with the victim over narcotics and paid Owens a significant amount of money and drugs to exact Huffman’s revenge against the victim,” DA Mike Aubele said at a press conference, according to CBS Pittsburgh.
Aubele said investigators gathered additional evidence against Huffman, including witness statements, cellphone data, and geolocation information.
When Huffman became a suspect, he was already behind bars in the Bedford County Correctional Facility, where he’d been since April on charges of kidnapping a good Samaritan who tried to offer assistance after Huffman crashed his vehicle.
During the incident, Huffman told the victim he did not want to go back to prison and forced the driver to take off, authorities said.
The driver got away safely after Huffman jumped out of the truck at a convenience store in Everett Borough, authorities said.
No stranger to law enforcement, Huffman was convicted of shooting a woman outside a bar in 2011, and during his latest jail bid, he was charged with attacking another inmate.
