Joshua Peikert, 32, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit risk of injury to a child. While he was in Corrigan Correctional Center, he is said to have planned a murder-for-hire plot against four people.
His cellmate said that Joshua told them that he wanted to kill a 29-year-old woman, her 23-year-old boyfriend, and her two kids, who are 1 and 10 years old. His cell friend told him that it would cost about $10,000 to kill each person. Joshua said it was possible and then wrote a letter with specific information about where the victims lived, how they slept, and where they kept their spare key.
However, Joshua’s cellmate told the police that he wasn’t planning to kill anyone and was just pretending to go along with the plan. He took Joshua’s $500 “finder’s fee” along with $250 upfront and another $250 after the job was meant to be done, but he didn’t do anything else.
The plan payments were made through Joshua’s younger brother Jeremiah Peikert, who is in the U.S. Army and will be stationed in Texas in July 2022. After a few deals, Joshua was let out of jail on bail. Following that, he and his cellmate talked about the alleged hit in coded language over the phone, calling it a “construction job” and “materials.”
He wrote the 29-year-old woman a message because he was “concerned for her safety and the safety of her children.” The inmate who was moved to MacDougall was told by another prison that Joshua put out a hit for him.
Police found proof of the money transfers on the cellmate’s tablet, as well as recordings of Jeremiah and the cellmate talking on the phone that could be used against him.
The person in Jeremiah’s cell told him that “the person who was going to do the “job” for Josh Peikert went to Florida and got into a fight with a police officer. He was then arrested.” That person in the cell then said, “The good news is that the job will get done because the payment and agreement went through. The bad news is that it might take a little while to happen.” It could be two weeks.”
Jeremiah said he knew the “construction job” that was being talked about in the conversations wasn’t really building work.
“Instead, from talking to Josh and his cellmate on the phone, I knew the “job” had something to do with hurting the woman…”I didn’t think the kids were supposed to be a part of this plan,” Joshua’s brother said.
Afterward, Jeremiah said he couldn’t remember any talks that made him think of ways the woman would be hurt or killed.
“I thought about calling the police and/or [woman], but I never did. Now I know I should have,” Jeremiah said. “The fact that Josh wanted to hurt her isn’t a complete surprise; Josh has always been violent with others.” He is also sneaky, especially around me, which helped me agree to help him.
When asked about the claims, Peikert refused to talk about them. He is still in jail because he can’t pay the $500,000 bond set by the court. The murder-for-hire plan is still being looked into.
Jeremiah was arrested by police on April 2 in Azle, Texas. He is being held in jail until he can be sent back to Connecticut, where he will face the same charges.
Joshua was sent back to the care of the CT Department of Correction because he could not pay the $500,000 bail set by the court.
Based on what the cops say, no one was hurt during the whole thing.
