A 52-year-old man from Kenya who once had his wife locked up in a mental facility when she tried to escape him with their children is now accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill her in Connecticut, state cops said.
A confidential informant (CI) identified only as an Uber driver was at the center of a police investigation report on Leonard Thuo Mwithiga.
Connecticut State Police said the CI picked up Mwithiga for multiple rides between Sept. 9 and Dec. 1, during which the suspect talked about his divorce, called his wife “evil,” and ultimately asked the CI to find a “hitman” to kill her — possibly by injecting the woman “with something to make her very sick, ‘Like a cancer,”” that would kill her slowly.
“[The witness] stated that eventually, Mwithiga would set up rides via personal text, outside of the ‘Uber’ platform” and that during these rides the CI “began to record conversations” where Mwithiga expressed “he was considering harming his wife.”
On Nov. 3, for instance, the defendant allegedly asked the Uber driver to take him to a Thompson, Ct., residence to “look for his wife and kids,” documents said.
“During this trip, Mwithiga asked [the witness] if he knew anyone who could ‘hit’ his wife, that he wanted someone to ‘finish her,’” authorities alleged.
Then, on Dec. 1, the defendant allegedly asked the Uber driver to meet at a Putnam-area Motel 6. When the witness went there, Mwithiga stated his wife was “evil” and that he was prepared to “fight evil with evil.”
“Mwithiga asked [the witness] to hire a ‘hitman’ to kill his wife,” documents said. Mwithiga allegedly specified that he wanted to “put that woman down,” and suggested that a would-be hitman could put “some injection” in his wife’s food or water to kill her slowly.
Leonard Mwithiga appears in court (WVIT/screengrab) and mug shot (Connecticut State Police)
Mwithiga gave the confidential informant $100 to “pay him for his time” and the two later messaged back and forth on WhatsApp state, cops alleged.
The CI asked the defendant how much Mwithiga would pay for him to find a hitman.
“Mwithiga told EDMC CI they could negotiate,” cops said.
As court documents put it, Mwithiga “called Victim #1 crazy, mentally unstable and emotional and that she has turned the children against him.”
“Mwithiga stated that he was ‘very, very mad, I need someone who is a killer,’” the state police report said.
The victim, when interviewed by police, said that she was in relationship with the suspect for 22 years in Kenya and that she and their two kids fled Kenya in September 2022 because her husband was physically abusive and had, on at least one occasion, threatened to kill her and the kids, cops said.
A year earlier, when the woman tried to leave Kenya with her kids, Mwithiga filed a police report to have her sent to a mental hospital, cops said.
“Victim #1 attempted to tleave the country with her children, but was stopped by police at the airport because Mwithiga had filed a police report. Victim #1 was then committed to a mental healthy facility by the police at the direction of her husband for being ‘mentally disturbed,’” documents said. “Once Victim #1 was released from the hospital, Mwithiga apologized for sending her to the hospital and they reconciled.”
But the abuse didn’t stop, the woman said.
“Mwithiga continued to be physically abusive, hitting both Victim #1 and [redacted] son and at one point, threatening Victim #1 and [redacted] daughter with a knife,” police said.
She allegedly said she started hiding knives so the defendant couldn’t use them.
Around a year after the woman and her kids fled from Mwithiga, the suspect in September 2023 allegedly brought a court case seeking to return the children to Kenya.
During the same month, she learned that Mwithiga “hired two private investigators” to follow her son, cops said.
All of this led to Monday, Dec. 4, when Mwithiga, the Uber driver, and an undercover state police sergeant with audio and video recording equipment rolling allegedly spoke “for approximately an hour and a half” in a car outside of the Motel 6 Mwithiga was staying at.
Mwithiga allegedly paid the undercover cop $300 and the Uber driver $100 upon reaching an agreement where the would-be hitman would take the target out on a date and have the victim snort cocaine (which would actually be “pure fentanyl”).
“Mwithiga asked the undercover to research a slow death for Victim #1, but ultimately he agreed that the hitman could kill the victim in any manner,” documents said.
The suspect allegedly asked the undercover cop to kill the victim between Jan. 28 and Feb. 3, so that Mwithiga would be in Kenya at the time. The defendant is further accused of agreeing to Western Union the Uber driver $4,000 to give to the hitman upon receipt of his estranged wife’s obituary, document said.
Mwithiga was arrested a short time later on Dec. 4 and jailed on a $5,000,000 bond, following charges of criminal attempt murder with special circumstances, conspiracy, and witness intimidation.
Read the police report here.
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