Woman aided boyfriend’s plot to kill drug informant, Centre County prosecutors allege
A woman spent months helping her jailed boyfriend plot to kill a man who worked with police as they built the drug case against him, Centre County prosecutors alleged in a charging document filed Monday.
Amanda L. Zortman, 45, of Clearfield County, was charged with felony counts of solicitation and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Prosecutors alleged she played an integral role in the plan to use fentanyl to kill a confidential informant who was slated to testify against her boyfriend at his upcoming trial.
A Centre County Correctional Facility inmate wrote in a letter that Mark Hackett, 63, of Clearfield County, was attempting to hire a hit man to kill the informant who purchased drugs from him on behalf of law enforcement, state police at Rockview wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
The inmate told troopers Hackett offered him upward of $10,000 to carry out the killing. He also said Zortman was supposed to drive him to Huntingdon County, where they would give the informant a lethal dose of fentanyl, police wrote.
The opioid painkiller is many times more powerful than heroin and frequently appears as an illegal street drug mixed with other substances.
During the investigation that spanned from October to mid-February, troopers said they also listened to recorded jailhouse calls and read messages in which Zortman took steps to help carry out the plan. Those repeated communications, police wrote, represented “substantial steps” to facilitate the killing of the informant.
Zortman was also charged with a felony count of criminal use of a communication facility. No defense lawyer was listed.
She was arraigned Monday by District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker and did not receive bail. She is incarcerated at the Centre County Correctional Facility. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 12.
Hackett was not charged as of Monday in connection with Zortman’s case. Still, he remains incarcerated at the Centre County jail while awaiting trial on felony drug charges.
His next court appearance is scheduled for later this month.