Porn actress pleads guilty in murder for hire
Danforth
A pornographic film actress from Post Falls accused of trying to kill her husband pleaded guilty Monday in Coeur d’Alene federal court.
Katrina L. Danforth, 32, whose screen name is Lynn Pleasant, could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and fined $250,000 for each count of using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder for hire.
Danforth was 31 when she was charged last December with five counts of hiring a hitman to kill the father of one of her children. Danforth went to Montana to hire a hitman — who was recommended by a friend of hers but who was actually an undercover police officer.
She was arrested Dec. 19 by federal agents at Spokane International Airport. She was later charged in U.S. District Court in Coeur d’Alene.
According to court documents, Danforth wanted to have “R.H., the father of one of her children, murdered.”
She discussed the idea with a friend, who provided her with the telephone number of a hit man who was an undercover officer and initially called the man to explore hiring him. Danforth met with the man in Montana in October, where she agreed to pay him $5,000 for the hit, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan.
“She had specific requirements that the hit man was to accomplish, such as R.H’s body had to be found and [she] did not care if others who lived in the home were harmed as long as her own child was not harmed,” according to the plea agreement Danforth signed Monday.
She met the putative hit man again that month to provide him with addresses, photographs and paperwork to help plan the murder.
A month later, Danforth continued to use her phone to communicate with the policeman posing as the hired killer, sending text messages and updates, including assurances that she would make the payment. She mailed $2,500 and a thank-you note Nov. 10 from her Idaho home to the hit man in Montana. The money was meant as a down payment, with the rest to be paid when R.H. was murdered.
Danforth admitted to the charges as part of the agreement, which dismissed three of the counts against her. Her sentence for each count could run consecutively. Even if U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Winmill chooses to not follow the recommendations in the agreement, Danforth will not be allowed to take back her guilty plea.
Sentencing is set for Dec. 2 at the federal courthouse in Coeur d’Alene.
The court ordered a presentence investigation.