Inside the Twisted Case of Man Who Plotted to Kill His Romantic Rival, Then Feed Body to Pigs

A New York man pleaded guilty to concocting an elaborate murder-for-hire plot against his romantic rival — one that included a plan to feed the victim’s body to hogs and a deranged warning delivered via a dead goose on a doorstep. 

Jeal Sutherland, 57, entered a guilty plea after being charged with using an interstate commerce facility in a murder-for-hire scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of New York wrote in a May 14 press release. 

Sutherland attempted to arrange the murder of a man who is the father of a child with Sutherland’s then-girlfriend, according to the Justice Department. He agreed to forgive the debt of a man he hired to carry out the murder, the office wrote, and contacted a man he believed to be a Pennsylvania hog farmer to dispose of the victim’s remains by feeding them to the animals. 

However, both the farmer and prospective hit men were FBI informants, according to the Justice Department.

Sutherland also hired a different man to put a dead Canada goose on the doorstep of his intended victim’s mother and stuff a threatening message in its beak in the weeks before the planned murder, per the press release. 

It was not the first time Sutherland victimized his romantic rival’s mother. According to a criminal complaint obtained by Law & Crime, the 57-year-old paid a man to set fire to her car to prevent her from testifying at a custody hearing. That man would also become an FBI informant in the case, according to the document.

The informant told the agency that Sutherland hired him as an “enforcer” for several vengeful tasks involving individuals who allegedly owed his employer money. Per the complaint, the informant also told the feds in advance that Sutherland intended to kill the father of his then-partner’s child in January, when the perceived adversary would be released from a New York State prison. 

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The informant began recording his conversations with Sutherland about the planned killing. In December, the informant told Sutherland, “I have a van I can rent for like $250 from a nun — we can take him to a farm and let the hogs eat him,” according to the complaint.

Initially, Sutherland told this informant that his then-girlfriend wanted to be involved in the hit, saying in one recording that she wanted him “strapped to a chair so she can hit him with a baseball bat,” according to the complaint. But he also noted that she would “fold like an accordion” if she were questioned, and later began to distance himself from the crime. He said in a later recording that he “[didn’t] want to know anything about [the killing],” but wanted photographic proof that his victim was dead, per the complaint. In another conversation, Sutherland said he would “probably be in Myrtle Beach” the day of the planned hit, per the document.

Sutherland, his girlfriend, his girlfriend’s child and the informant all went to a bowling alley together on Jan. 26, according to the complaint, where the informant told Sutherland that he needed to be paid before carrying out the killing. The pair drove from the bowling alley to the home of one of Sutherland’s relatives, where Sutherland gave the informant “an E-ZPass transponder, a bottle of Wild Turkey bourbon for the hog farmer, and $1,450 cash.”

The agency arrested Sutherland the next day and charged him with using an interstate commerce facility in a murder-for-hire scheme. He pleaded guilty on May 14, and his sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 22. 

Sutherland faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to three years, according to the release.