NEW YORK – Two North Carolina men were arrested Wednesday on charges that they carried out a contract killing, allegedly leaving a woman dead on a garbage pile in the Philippines before each collected a portion of their $35,000 fee.
An indictment unsealed in US District Court in New York City charged Adam Samia and Carl David Stillwell in the early 2012 killing of a Filipino woman.
Prosecutors said the woman, identified in court papers only as “Victim-1,” was shot multiple times in the face before she was dumped on a pile of trash.
“After their contract killing, they allegedly covered their tracks by conspiring to launder the blood-money back to the United States,” Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a release.
He said the men were arrested in Roxboro, North Carolina, after the US Drug Enforcement Administration played a key role in the probe, with cooperation from local and federal law enforcement officials.
Samia, 41, and Stillwell, 47, were scheduled to make an initial appearance yesterday in federal court in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was not immediately clear who will represent them in court.
Each was charged with conspiracy to kidnap and murder in the Philippines, discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and conspiracy to launder the proceeds of committing murder-for-hire. If convicted, they could face life in prison.
The person who allegedly hired the men was not named in the indictment, nor was the reason.
Prosecutors said Samia advertised himself as a “personal protection/security industry” professional who had worked as an “independent contractor” for clients in the Philippines, China, Papua New Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo. They said he claimed he had training in tactics and weapons, including handguns, shotguns, rifles, sniper rifles and machine guns.
Stillwell’s resume claimed he had training and experience in the field of information technology and had worked at a North Carolina firm that provides firearms training, prosecutors said.