Source: Rankin County Sheriff's DepartmentRANKIN COUNTY, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
A Rankin County inmate is involved in a bizarre murder-for-hire case.
Investigators say he tried to hire someone to kill his sister and brother-in-law.
At the center of the case is an estate battle and an inheritance of $750,000.
Julian Robert Conn, 55, was in jail on charges of burglary, 3-counts of possession of a controlled substance while in possession of a firearm and escape.
While in the Rankin County Detention Center, police say Conn recruited another inmate to help him scheme to kill his sister and brother-in-law so he would be the sole heir of the family estate.
"What Mr. Conn was trying to do was use another inmate in the county jail who was then going to contact a third party in the free world; if you will, and that individual was going to be the one responsible for the death of Mr. Conn's sister and brother-in-law" said Rankin County District Attorney Michael Guest.
It took about ten days for the district attorney and sheriff to put the case together.
Family members in Birmingham were notified they were the target of a murder-for-hire plot and local lawmen stepped up patrols in their area for protection.
Conn has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder.
Each count carries a 20-year prison sentence,
Conn is scheduled to make his initial appearance on the new charges Tuesday before Judge Kent McDaniel in Rankin County Court.
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