People v. Breton

Keith Breton (defendant) was on trial for sale of cocaine. The man to whom Breton sold the drugs, Gary Wehrmeister, agreed to testify against Breton at trial. Days later, a fellow inmate of Breton told authorities that Breton was seeking out a hit man to kill Wehrmeister to prevent Wehrmeister from testifying. The state’s attorney’s office then implemented an undercover operation whereby Breton’s fellow inmate provided Breton with the contact information of hit men who were actually undercover agents. Over the course of the next two weeks, Breton contacted the agent posing as a hit man and discussed his desire to have Wehrmeister killed. During the conversations, Breton provided information about Wehrmeister’s location and habits and gave detailed instructions on how the agent could collect the cash payment for the job. The State of Illinois (plaintiff) subsequently charged Breton with solicitation of murder for hire under § 8-1.2(a), which provided that a person was guilty of solicitation of murder for hire when, intending that the crime of murder be committed, he procured another to commit the offense by way of any agreement, command, or request for anything of value. A jury convicted Breton, and he appealed, contending that, because the undercover agent did not actually “agree” to the solicitation, a bilateral agreement, as required by the statute, never existed.