The Kansas City man arrested this week in a Benton County murder-for-hire plot wanted to give an informant $5,000 to kill a police officer and two people who aided police in his initial drug arrest with a sledge hammer, according to court documents released Friday.
Mays told the informant he wanted some “snitches’”bodies to line the courthouse steps, documents show.
Leo Mays, 49, was arrested this week on suspicion of conspiracy to commit capital murder. He remained Friday in the Benton County Jail after a $500,000 bond was set for him by a judge, according to the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. Mays’ next court date is set for March 3 in Benton County Circuit Court.
Investigators said Mays met a criminal informant at a Bentonville motel Wednesday to go over a murder-for-hire Mays wanted to informant to carry out. Mays said he wanted the informant to hire someone to kill two men whose statements to police led to Mays’ arrest, according to a probable cause report filed in Benton County. He also wanted a police officer dead, saying he also had to get rid of a few “snitches” and wanted to line “the court house steps with dead bodies,” deputies said Mays told the informant.
The informant brought an undercover detective to the motel room, disguised as a hitman. After the detective arrived, all three continue to talk about the planned killing of the three men, for which the hitman would be paid $5,000, according to the probable cause report.
Mays told the informant and undercover detective he wanted them to use “a sledge hammer to split his head” after luring the "snitch" to Kansas City, where he either might be buried or fed to pigs at a nearby farm, according to the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies said Mays also told the men he wanted one of the target’s tongues to be ripped out and his neck snapped. Mays was going to wear the target’s tongue around his neck, the suspect told the informant and undercover detective, the affidavit states.
After the undercover officer and the confidential informant left the room, three Benton County deputies swarmed the motel and arrested Mays. Mays told arresting deputies he was not serious about the hit, the probable cause affidavit states.
Mays was arrested in a separate incident in December 2013 after deputies said they intercepted him while he was on the way to a methamphetamine deal near Lingle Middle School in Rogers. A confidential informant told authorities two people, including Mays, were heading to a home just south of the middle school to carry out the deal, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Benton County.
Deputies stopped the car Mays was in with another man, finding pills and suspected methamphetamine in the vehicle, the affidavit states. The 11-gram bag of suspected methamphetamine was found hidden in the sunglasses compartment on the ceiling of the vehicle, deputies said.