Hit-man hire case clouded

A federal jury found a Kootenai County man guilty Friday in a murder-for-hire plot in which he sought to have his ex-wife killed so he could have sole custody of their children.

But the verdict against 54-year-old Paul W. Driggers is unofficial until U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge decides whether to grant a last-minute motion by the defense for a mistrial.

Assistant Federal Defender Kathleen Moran asked for a mistrial after learning that one juror was accidentally given a page with information about Driggers’ criminal record. The jury discovered that only one juror had the information during deliberations Friday and sent a note from the juror’s room to inform the judge.

Moran said the court had previously ordered that the information be excluded from evidence and that its inclusion in the juror’s packet was a “costly mistake.”

“That Mr. Driggers spent 10 years in prison is extremely prejudicial,” she said. “We feel we are entitled to a mistrial.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan said the jury had indicated the verdict was reached without considering the information.

“The verdict should stand,” Whelan said.

Lodge asked each juror whether they had read the page and what information they remembered. Most of the jurors said they had either seen the page or that it had been read to them.

“It had no bearing whatsoever on my decision,” one juror said. When Lodge asked all of the jurors whether they’d have reached the same verdict without knowing Driggers spent 10 years in prison, they unanimously agreed that they still would have found him guilty.

The judge said he would take the mistrial motion under advisement and asked attorneys for both sides to prepare legal briefs on the issue.

After the jury was dismissed, a male juror who asked that his name not be used said there was “overwhelming evidence” against Driggers.

“If he is going to be retried, people will find the same thing,” he said.

A female juror said the mistrial motion was “a bummer.”

“It’s going to be disgusting if it all gets thrown away because of that little bit of evidence we saw,” she said. She said Driggers hurt himself when he testified on his own behalf.

“None of us, I think, thought Mr. Driggers was credible,” said another female juror.

Driggers was arrested in August 2006 after a Northern California man, whom he had tried to hire as a hit man to kill his ex-wife, went to authorities. In a jailhouse interview shortly after his arrest, Driggers called his wife a “black widow.”

Court and police records revealed that his ex-wife had previously turned him in for being a felon in possession of a handgun. She also had filed a rape complaint against him after she learned that he had divorced her without her knowledge, yet continued to live with and have sex with her.

Prosecutors alleged Driggers found a hit man, Matthew Robinson, through a mutual prison acquaintance.

The hit man-turned-informant traveled to Coeur d’Alene twice to meet with Driggers, who offered him up to $10,000 to kill his ex-wife, according to court records. After the initial meeting with Driggers, Robinson reportedly went to authorities and revealed the plot.

During closing statements Friday morning, Moran had said that the government didn’t prove criminal intent and, therefore, Driggers couldn’t be found guilty.

Though Moran said there was no plan hatched to kill Driggers’ ex-wife, Whelan said there was.

Whelan said Driggers showed pictures of his ex-wife to Robinson during a July 25 meeting in a store parking lot. Driggers also deposited $1,000 into Robinson’s bank account as a down payment for the murder, prosecutors said.

Moran told jurors it didn’t make sense that a hit man would accept a payment plan for killing Driggers’ ex-wife, as alleged by prosecutors.

Whelan said it’s possible a hit man would accept a payment plan, and she said there was “plenty of evidence to prove intent in the case.”

“The only way intent could be shown any more in this case is if we had a body to show you,” she said.