## Facts

- Eric Nelson, during a contentious divorce, discussed with his friend Laura Tatarzyn the idea of using a “hit man.”
- After Tatarzyn mentioned hiring a hit man to kill her boyfriend, Nelson discussed having the same hit man kill his wife.
- Nelson told Tatarzyn, “You should ask for a two-for-one deal,” which she understood as a serious request.
- Tatarzyn informed Nelson’s wife; the wife contacted police.
- Police arranged for an undercover officer, Juan Anguiano, to pose as a hit man and contact Nelson.
- Nelson spoke with the undercover officer and arranged a meeting for two days later.
- After Nelson’s girlfriend said she would leave him if he went through with it, Nelson did not attend the planned meeting.
- Nelson was arrested and convicted at trial of solicitation of murder under California Penal Code § 653f(b).

## Issues

1. Whether sufficient evidence supported solicitation of murder where the defendant asked a friend to obtain a hit man to kill the intended victim (solicitation through an intermediary).
2. Whether conditional phrasing and the defendant’s later failure to meet the purported hit man prevented the crime of solicitation from being complete.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal affirmed the conviction.
- The court held that solicitation may be proved where the defendant solicits an intermediary to procure or solicit a third party to commit murder.
- The court held that the offense was complete upon the solicitation made with intent that the murder be committed; conditional wording and later nonattendance at a meeting did not negate completion.

## Legal Principles

- Under Penal Code § 653f(b), a person is guilty if, with intent that murder be committed, the person solicits another to kill or to join in the commission of murder.
- The essence of solicitation is an attempt to induce another person to commit (or assist in committing) a crime; direct contact with the ultimate perpetrator is not required.
- Soliciting an intermediary to procure a killer can constitute soliciting the intermediary to participate in the murder (including as an aider and abettor), satisfying the statute.
- Solicitation is complete when a serious request is made with the required intent, even if the request is conditional or contingent on terms (such as price).
- Completion does not depend on acceptance, any later act toward completion, or the defendant’s later abandonment; refusal, impossibility, or an undercover recipient does not defeat the offense.

## Conclusion

The court upheld Nelson’s solicitation-of-murder conviction because his serious request that a friend arrange his wife’s killing, followed by his dealings with an undercover “hit man,” met the statutory elements even though the solicitation was indirect, framed conditionally, and later abandoned.


People v. Nelson, 240 Cal. App. 4th 488 (Cal. Ct. App. 2015)