Left: Freddy Gonzalez (Simson County Jail). Right: Brian Russell (Crafton Funeral Home).
A federal judge in Kentucky sentenced a man to 40 years in prison for orchestrating the murder of his girlfriend’s ex-husband after she decided to return to her spouse, records show.
Freddy Gonzalez, 40, pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm as part of a conspiracy to commit a murder-for-hire in the death of 43-year-old Brian Russell in Franklin, located in the southern part of the Bluegrass State. Gonzalez, a manager at a cafe at the Kentucky Downs casino and hotel, hired one of his employees to murder Russell. The employee, Xavior Posey, shot Russell to death at the victim’s home on Dec. 30, 2020.
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According to prosecutors, Russell and his ex-wife were high school sweethearts who were married for 16 years and had two kids together. In 2018, they separated and divorced but maintained contact to co-parent their children. She began dating Gonzalez in 2020 but broke it off after about eight months. Gonzalez continued to “pine” for the woman as she went back and forth between him and Russell. During this time, Gonzalez “obsessively stalked” the woman, prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum.
“He deluged her with text messages, surreptitiously placed a digital tracking device on her car, surveilled her, and staged ‘random’ encounters with her,” prosecutors wrote.
Ultimately, she decided to go back to her ex-husband in mid-December 2020, feds said. An enraged Gonzalez told Russell he had a gun and threatened to kill him, per prosecutors. Gonzalez then concocted a scheme to murder Russell. He offered Posey $2,000, a pickup truck plus a raise at the cafe to kill Russell. After Posey agreed, prosecutors say Gonzalez gave him the murder weapon. Gonzalez also showed Posey where Russell lived and sketched a map of the victim’s home and included the address, according to prosecutors.
Posey and Gonzalez exchanged text messages that discussed “cleaning the kitchen” which was code for carrying out the murder. Here’s the exchange, grammar errors and typos included:
Gonzalez: Need to know something brother about the cleaning the
Posey: Just let me know ifu do or not
Gonzalez: U got me thinking man about this one lol. I don’t
Gonzalez: The kitchen area really needs it tho
Posey: Right well it’s up to u fam
Gonzalez: I would rather u do it man be I do trust that you ca
Posey: I got u
Gonzalez: Alright awesome
Prosecutors say Posey had a buddy drive him to Russell’s home around 5:30 a.m. the morning in question. He ran up to Russell’s door and knocked, claiming he had car trouble. Russell opened the door and Posey shot him once in the head and twice in the chest before running away, according to prosecutors.
Officers from the Franklin Police Department responded to a shots fired call and found Russell suffering from gunshot wounds “sweating profusely and struggling to breath and begging for help,” feds wrote. Paramedics rushed Russell to the hospital where doctors pronounced him dead. Later that day Posey texted Russell:
Posey: Did I not clean it good enough?
Gonzalez: I haven’t heard from anyone it was cleaned be she
Gonzalez: Did you clean the hoods up there?
Posey: Definitely did but u can check when I get back to work
The duo then disassembled the weapon and disposed of it in the Barren River, prosecutors said. After receiving his Miranda warnings, Gonzalez denied to detectives that he had anything to do with Russell’s death. But after cops found the tracking device in the woman’s car, they arrested him for stalking. While in jail Gonzalez made a phone call where he asked the person on the other line to remind Posey that “all they talked about was cleaning the cafe,” prosecutors wrote.
Cops arrested Posey on Jan. 9, 2021, on outstanding warrants. That’s when they found Gonzalez’s hand-drawn map of Russell’s home. They also uncovered the text messages between Gonzalez and Posey. Feds indicted the duo in May 2021.
“To arrange for Mr. Posey to walk up to Mr. Russell’s house, knock on his door and murder him in cold blood is truly the most outrageous, unimaginable crime I can think of,” U.S. District Court Chief Judge Greg Stivers said, according to a courtroom report from the Bowling Green Daily News.
For his part, Gonzalez apologized for the hurt he caused.
“To Brian’s family, I am ashamed to no end at the pain and suffering I put you in because of my jealousy and desperation,” Gonzalez reportedly said.
Russell’s son also made a victim impact statement.
“I lost my best friend and my first baseball coach,” Russell’s son reportedly said. “He raised me to be the person I am today, to take care of my family … the day I found out my father passed, my happiness was gone.”
Stivers on Tuesday sentenced Posey, who also pleaded guilty, to 35 years in prison.
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