Woman admits hiring hit man with stolen credit cards

A woman who wanted her ex's new girlfriend dead pleaded guilty today to a murder-for-hire plot in which she used stolen credit cards to pay for the services of a double-crossing, self-described hit man.

The intended victim was not harmed.

Marissa Mark, 28, was living in Allentown in 2006 when she visited the website hitmanforhire.net.

After haggling over a contract, Mark agreed to pay $37,000 to the "hit man," actually a Las Vegas poker dealer, if he shot her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend in the head.

To pay for the job, she used three stolen credit cards to send funds to the poker dealer's PayPal account, according to court papers.

The accused hit man, Essam Ahmed Eid, later handed the intended victim a note that said: "Somebody wants your head. Somebody wants you killed and they hate you a lot."

Then Eid allegedly told the intended victim that for a modest fee of $19,000 he would go away and kill Mark instead.

He was later arrested and convicted in Ireland in a similar double-cross plot and was extradited back to the United States in May to face charges in this case.

Mark was arrested in March at her current home in Jersey City. Today she pleaded guilty to conspiring to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, three counts of aggravated identity theft, attempted access device fraud, and aiding and abetting, said U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger.

Mark, who is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 9, faces a federal prison term of up to 56 years.

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