By Dan Rozek
Chicago Sun Times
John Johnson was so eager to have his ex-wife murdered he used a DuPage County Jail phone to call a guy he thought was a hit man and gave specific instructions about how he wanted her killed, prosecutors said Thursday.
“Two slugs to the head, that’s it. Real quick,” Johnson said in the July 1 phone call, according to a recording played at a bail hearing. “I just want that b - - - - dead. That’s all I want.”
After hearing the tape, DuPage County Circuit Judge Peter Dockery ordered the 41-year-old Chicago man held without bail on a murder-solicitation charge filed earlier this week.
“He poses a real danger,” Dockery said of Johnson, a former mortgage banker who smirked and laughed several times as the six-minute recording played.
Adding an unusual restriction, Dockery also limited Johnson’s phone calls from the jail to his defense attorney only.
Johnson was in the jail for allegedly violating an order of protection obtained by his former wife following their divorce in 2007 after a five-month marriage.
While in jail, Johnson tried to hire a hit man to kill his former wife, prosecutors said, but an informant tipped off sheriff’s police, so Johnson was actually talking with an undercover detective in the recorded call.
Police later attempted to persuade Johnson that his wife had been killed, showing him a phony picture of a woman who appeared to have been shot, a law enforcement source said.
At one point during the call, Johnson offered to pay $3,000 -- double an earlier offer -- to have his ex-wife gunned down, prosecutors said.
“Seeing the urgency of it, I was going to double the money,” Johnson said on tape.
Asked by the detective if he was sure about having the woman killed, Johnson replied: “That’s what I want. I’m positive.”
Prosecutors cited Johnson’s repeated comments about wanting to harm his former wife as a justification for keeping him jailed until he goes to trial.
His attorney argued that Johnson wasn’t serious when he made the alleged threats.
“This was a fantasy on Mr. Johnson’s part, not the reality,” defense attorney Charles Lauer said. “This is talk on the phone.”
Copyright 2009 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.