Katrina Danforth, a 31-year-old adult film actress who also goes by the stage name Lynn Pleasant, was arrested on the morning of Wednesday, December 19 at Spokane International Airport after she allegedly tried to hire someone to kill a person.
According to a report from The Spokesman-Review, following her arrest, Danforth was booked into the Spokane County Jail and was charged with five counts of using interstate commerce in the “commission of murder for hire.”
Court records indicate that Danforth tried to hire someone to kill a victim identified in only as “R.H.”. Four of Danforth’s charges come from her alleged use of a telephone and the fifth count is linked to her use of the U.S. postal service in an attempt to contact the purported hitman.
Danforth’s indictment was handed down on Tuesday, December 18, by a judge in U.S. District Court in Idaho.
via The Spokesman-Review:
Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan, who is based in Coeur d’Alene, confirmed Wednesday that the intended target, who lives in Idaho, was not harmed. Danforth appeared Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Rodgers and indicated she was not able to afford her own lawyer.
Whelan said Danforth apparently has no prior felony convictions, which means she likely would face less prison time if convicted.
Whelan said she could not elaborate on the nature of the crime or the victim out of caution for the victim’s safety and because that person could soon be moving.
At the hearing Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Goeke asked Rodgers to keep Danforth in jail because of a “serious risk of flight and danger to the community.”
If found guilty on her charges, Danforth faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.
Federal Public Defender Molly Winston asked the judge to schedule Danforth’s detention hearing for 1:30 p.m. on Friday, December 21.
