North Liberty man convicted in second murder-for-hire plot

Jurors needed only 12 minutes of deliberations before finding a former North Liberty man guilty in a murder-for-hire plot involving witnesses from another criminal case.

Justin L. DeWitt, 38, was found guilty by the Muscatine County jury this week of three counts of attempt to commit murder. DeWitt, who is already serving a sentence for another murder-for-hire plot in Johnson County, faces up to 25 years per count at his sentencing Jan. 20 in Muscatine County.

DeWitt was an inmate in the Muscatine County Jail following his arrest in Johnson County for trying to arrange the murder of four people. DeWitt solicited another inmate to make arrangements to have three of the witnesses from his Johnson County case killed so they couldn't testify against him. The inmate alerted investigators.

DeWitt spoke twice to an undercover agent he thought was an associate of the person hired to conduct the killings. He told the agent the three people he wanted killed, identified their home and a vehicle, and discussed financial terms for the killings. The conversations were captured on the jail's video system.

DeWitt later mailed the agent a diagram of the home and also made a call to another person trying to arrange the down payment for the killings, evidence presented at the two-day trial showed.

DeWitt is already serving a 35-year sentence for the Johnson County murder-for-hire plot in which he tried to have a former business associate and his family - with two small children - killed. During a plea hearing earlier this year, DeWitt admitted to hiring a person he thought was a hit man - but actually was an undercover officer - on June 27, 2016. It was at that hearing he told the judge the former associate had 'cost me an $80,000 contract.”