Charges filed in West Jordan polygamous-ninja caper

A polygamous Utah man in prison for a 2014 rape has been charged in Salt Lake County with plotting the attempted killing of the 14-year-old rape victim and two others who lived in her home.

The man allegedly worked from behind bars to have two polygamous women break into the rape victim's home in West Jordan and kill her and the two others in summer 2014, according to charging documents filed Thursday.

"He was convinced that if [the rape victim] were dead, the authorities would have to release him," according to court documents.

The man allegedly told the women to break into the victim's home and incapacitate the two adults who lived there by injecting them with a chemical called formalin and then giving him a lethal dose of heroin before suffocating the rape victim.

Court documents allege that the man began plotting the killings shortly after being arrested in July 2014 for raping the teen that March. Court documents from that case describe the man as the victim's uncle.

In an effort to protect the identity of the rape victim, The Salt Lake Tribune isn't naming the man or women involved in the case.

During the investigation, a detective listened to phone calls as the man laid out a plan with three women, two of whom were to carry out the plot, according to court documents.

The two women were dressed as ninjas, wearing black clothing and carrying fake heroin, a tourniquet, a folding knife, wooden matches, a plastic jar with formalin, plastic wrap and a stun gun, when they broke into the victim's house in September 2014.

The homeowner and a friend who was staying in the house at the time subdued the women without injury.

The women were either dating or married to the victim's uncle at the time, they told authorities.

The uncle was sentenced to serve up to 15 years in prison for the March 2014 rape. He faces five counts related to the alleged West Jordan plot: three counts of solicitation for aggravated murder, and a count each of attempted aggravated murder and conspiracy to commit aggravated murder.

Another woman who was allegedly working with the man on the plot faces the same charges.

tanderson@sltrib.com

Twitter: @TaylorWAnderson