Hit man case sent to trial

Defendant wanted informant killed, prosecutors say

By Sara Ganim

BELLEFONTE — Riding back from his arraignment last week on charges he ordered the killing of a police informant from his jail cell, accused cocaine dealer Michael P. Alexander told state police he wanted to talk.

“He said he didn’t really mean to have anybody killed, anybody harmed,” Rockview state police Trooper James P. Ellis testified at Alexander’s preliminary hearing Wednesday.

“He was weighing his options,” Ellis said.

District Judge Jonathan Grine found police had enough evidence that Alexander, 29, tried to solicit a hit man, and sent the case to county court for trial.

Police say Alexander asked a friend on the outside, 24-year-old local amateur boxer Katongo Mulenga, to arrange for a hit man to kill a State College informant who helped police arrest Alexander on drug charges.

Police began investigating Alexander after he asked a fellow inmate at the county jail if he knew anyone good for hire. That inmate told state police, who then had an undercover trooper pose as a hit man.

District Attorney Michael Madeira said in court that Alexander’s statement to police was “too late,” since it came after the arrest was made.

Alexander’s attorney, Kelley Gillette-Walker, insisted Wednesday that there was little evidence against him.

“There was only one conversation recorded between trooper( s) and Alexander,” she told Grine. “And that conversation didn’t include anything specific about murder or a hit man.”

The undercover trooper contacted Alexander by sending him a letter. Police testified that when Alexander tried to write back with information about what he wanted from the “hit man,” the letter was returned to the sender.

So Alexander took the letter out of the envelope, and gave it to the inmate who had informed police of his plans. The inmate passed it on.

“We don’t know for sure who wrote this letter,” Gillette-Walker argued in court. “The (inmate) said he got the letter from Alexander and handed it over to police.”

Shortly afterward, the inmate, who has a rap sheet with theft, assault and drug charges, was paroled.

Troopers said it was “for his safety, most importantly, and as a result of cooperation on cases that he obtained information.”

They also said that Alexander wrote in the letter about the man he wanted dead, including personal information, such as height and weight, where the man worked and his drug habits.

Police have accused Mulenga of then having several telephone conversations with the “hit man” to relay information back and forth between the undercover trooper and Alexander.

A district judge decided last week Mulenga’s case was strong enough to move forward, but his attorney, Karen Muir, says Mulenga tried to back out as soon as he realized how serious it was.

Sara Ganim can be reached at 231-4616.