Salt Lake City woman jailed for attempted murder of her ex's new girlfriend

SALT LAKE CITY – A woman stood in Salt Lake City federal court Monday to describe how the news that her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend had plotted her murder changed her.

She was “stunned,” overwhelmed, and had a “broken” sense of security.

“I can't enjoy anything or look forward to anything because I'm always panicking that it will be taken away from me,” she said.

The woman said she wakes up and is happy to be alive, but has also missed things because of her fear. She said the woman convicted of paying a hitman to kill her – Krista Renae Stone – continues to downplay her actions and continues to send messages to the victim's friends and her boyfriend, who is also Stone's ex-boyfriend.

She said she felt no remorse for Stone and recently described her as “an obstacle in the way of my happiness” in a text message to a friend.

“This has changed my view of the world and I will never be the same person again,” the woman said.

Stone, 23, of Salt Lake City, was sentenced to six and a half years in a federal prison after pleading guilty to “using interstate commerce facilities to commit murder for hire.” She was also sentenced to three years' probation following her prison term.

Stone said she did not have the opportunity to apologize to the woman and her family before the verdict, but said she was not of sound mind at the time.

“I recently realized that I was not aware of the depth of the pain I was causing,” Stone said.

She said she became unstable when she discovered a dark web website that offered to hire assassins. She knew what she was doing was wrong but “didn't see a way out.” She said she made up lies about her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend to justify her behavior. She said she should have asked for help sooner.

“I thank God every day that the site was fake and it's still here,” Stone said.

Assistant U.S. District Attorney Carol Dain said Stone made multiple posts on two different dark web accounts with descriptions and photos of the woman she wanted killed. She said Stone wrote “detailed instructions” about how she planned the murder and provided information about the woman's whereabouts. She said Stone paid $5,000 in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin for the hitman.

Dain also said it was not just a one-time request, but that Stone had been inquiring about her request over “several months.” The prosecutor read from posts from July and August 2023 in which Stone asked if the murder was complete and claimed the woman had hit someone, underscoring the urgency of the assignment.

On August 6, 2023, Stone said on the form that the victim needed to “get out of here as soon as possible” and that if that didn't happen soon, she would have to think of something else.

Dain said Stone's actions and sophisticated computer use showed a disregard for human life. However, she said she believes the crime was “a slap in the face” to Stone and expressed hope that she can move on with her life after her conviction.

Because Stone was cooperative and took responsibility, prosecutors recommended a 10% reduction in his sentence, according to Dain. That meant a prison sentence of 78 months instead of 87 months. The judge followed that recommendation.

Senior U.S. District Judge David Sam said he was “very troubled” by the case before handing down the ruling. After her comments, he told the victim he hoped she could heal and thanked officers involved in the case for saving her life.

He encouraged Stone not to give up hope and thanked her family for supporting her, including many who sat behind her in the courtroom. He encouraged her to stay positive and do whatever she can to put this behind her.

Sam listed several probation conditions tailored specifically to Stone, including psychiatric treatment, searches of her home, person, devices and vehicle if there is “reasonable suspicion” that she is not complying with the conditions, surrender of the passwords to all of her accounts and constant monitoring of all of her devices with internet access.

U.S. Attorney for Utah Trina Higgins thanked the agents who worked on the case.

“Ms. Stone's murder-for-hire was a brazen attempt on another person's life that caused extreme emotional harm. Without law enforcement's discovery of the website used by Ms. Stone and the extensive law enforcement investigation, the outcome would be far more devastating,” she said.

Christopher Miller, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, said the agency prevented the plot from being carried out.

He said the agents were “responsible for preventing crimes that turn human lives into commodities.”