Woman jailed in Florida tries to hire assassin after fraud conviction, officials say

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — A day after she was convicted of mail fraud in Florida, a 51-year-old woman tried to hire a hitman to brutally kill one witness and the family member of another who had testified against her, a federal indictment filed Wednesday said.

Priscilla Ann Ellis was found guilty Oct. 21 in connection with an international money laundering and fraud operation that netted millions of dollars from victims.

Ellis is accused of approaching another inmate in the Pinellas County Jail the next day to help restart her fraud organization and find someone to “get their hands dirty,” the indictment said.

She agreed to pay $800 for each person’s killing, investigators said.

The inmate, who was identified only as a confidential source, notified authorities, who started surveillance on Ellis at the jail, officials said.

The source told Ellis that a cousin could carry out the killings, and Ellis said she wanted a witness living in Tampa to be killed and given a “Colombian necktie,” court documents said.

Ellis told the source’s cousin to “do what we got to do" regarding the 9-year-old child of the witness, "indicating that the 9-year-old was to be killed if necessary to accomplish the murder of the child’s mother,” a criminal complaint filed against Ellis said.

Ellis told the source that the killing had to take place by the weekend, but it was OK if the mother of another witness wasn’t killed for several weeks, investigators said.

Ellis, who has not been sentenced for her mail fraud conviction, was charged with two counts of retaliating against a witness and two counts of using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.

Cox Media Group