Former US soldier Joseph Hunter is facing life in jail after being found guilty of organizing the murder of a woman in the Philippines. The source did not mention the identity of the Filipina who was murdered.
Nicknamed “Rambo,” the former sniper instructor was convicted with two other men by a court in New York for conspiring to kidnap and kill the Filipina victim.
The three Americans, Hunter, 52, Adam Samia, 43, and Carl David Stillwell, 50, will be sentenced on September, with a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Hunter was a former US army sergeant who left the armed forces in 2004 after more than 20 years, while Samia has previously claimed to have worked as a “contractor” for clients in the Philippines. All three men had extensive firearms training.
In 2012, Samia and Stillwell travelled to the Philippines where Hunter gave them information on their victims and weapons to use in the killing. After studying their Filipina target for months, the two men killed her by shooting her in the face multiple times then dumped her body on a pile of garbage.
Hunter and the former soldiers turned from serving their countries to becoming mercenaries for hire, plotting to kill a DEA agent and informant and trafficking in massive quantities of cocaine.
In 2013, Hunter hired a group of four former soldiers from the US to act as bodyguards and hitmen for what they thought were a Colombian drug cartel, according to the US Attorney’s Department.
But the men who recruited the former US soldier to protect their cartel were “confidential sources for the DEA.” In 2013, Hunter described his work to one of his team members as “like a military mission,” according to the US Attorney’s Office. (Source: CNN)