Aryan Brotherhood Member Solicits Murder

An alleged member of the local Aryan Brotherhood Thomas Hill pleaded guilty today to soliciting the murder of a family member imprisoned for a sex offense against a child.

As a part of a larger investigation into the Aryan Brotherhood, FBI agents learned in 2006 that 24-year-old Thomas Hill was seeking someone inside the brotherhood's New Mexico prison membership to murder Stanley Hill because the younger Hill believed he had allegedly sexually abused a minor family child. Stanley Hill pleaded guilty to Criminal Sexual Contact of a Minor Under 12 in 2004 and is currently in prison in New Mexico.

The FBI referred the case to the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Albuquerque in 2007 and Thomas Hill was indicted. After a series of court hearings, Hill appeared before District Judge Stan Whitaker this morning and entered a plea of guilty to one count of solicitation of murder. Hill faces up to nine years of incarceration in this case. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

This morning, Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg commended the agents and prosecutors involved in this long and complicated case. The cooperation between the FBI and District Attorney’s Office demonstrates the continuing cooperative efforts by all agencies involved in law enforcement to bring offenders in the community to justice.