MILWAUKEE — A 21-year-old Milwaukee man, who has already convicted of murder, has been charged with sending letters asking a friend to kill witnesses who testified against him, according to a criminal complaint.
Jarmell Bingham was convicted of 12 felonies on Oct. 21. Some of the charges included were murder, possession of a firearm, and fleeing an officer. During Bingham's trial, three witnesses testified against him.
Following his conviction, Bingham was in the custody of the sheriff and held in the Milwaukee County Criminal Justice Facility as he awaited sentencing, the complaint says. From the facility, Bingham sent a letter to an address on N. 64th St. in Milwaukee. However, the Post Office accidentally delivered it to the wrong address, according to the complaint.
On Oct. 31, the Milwaukee Police Department got a call from the person who received the letter. They were alarmed by the contents and turned it over to police.
The complaint says the letter contained plans to smuggle drugs into the Wisconsin prison system, in addition to killing the three witnesses who testified in Bingham's trial.
Bingham said in his letter, "Aye you gotta smoke my witnesses before my appeal to make sure I come home for sure."
The letter then names all three witnesses and gives descriptions of two locations where these witnesses can be located. Bingham also advised the intended recipient that photos of two of the witnesses can be found online, according to the complaint.
In his letter, Bingham went on to say, "I need this done before my appeal that way the body and sh** automatically beat. It have to get dismissed no trial if they dead."
According to the criminal complaint, Bingham believed his strategy would result in his being freed on appeal within five years.
In addition to asking the intended recipient to kill the witnesses, Bingham asked that the intended recipient help him smuggle drugs into the prison system.
Bingham wrote in the latter, "Just have somebody meet up with my [baby momma] a day before visiting day. But Every time you meet with give her 20 grams but I need you to have it bagged up in all halfs inside of color full ballons so I can swallow’em like skittles." It is suspected that Bingham was talking about heroin, police say in the complaint.
On Nov. 4, the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office Investigators and MPD personnel searched the home of the intended resident. Police discovered three other letter from Bingham. Within these letters, Bingham asked the recipient to be his alibi, and ask two friends to also pretend to be alibi's.
Due to all this new information, Bingham is now facing four additional charges. He is facing three counts of attempted solicitation of first degree intentional homicide, a felony punishable up to six years in prison, along with one count of attempted solicitation of deliver illegal articles to inmate, a misdemeanor punishable up to nine months in prison.
