The Misery Machine - The Case of Jazmin Paez

Starting point is 00:00:00 Now at 11, a developing story, a South Florida mother is in jail tonight accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill her own child. Founded in 2005 by Bob Innes, Rentahitman.com is a satirical website purporting to offer contract killers for hire. Now, according to their website, rentahitman.com has assisted a diverse range of satisfied clients, including ordinary citizens of all ages, government employees, and even political figures. and has done so since 1920. With over 17,985 U.S. base operatives, they can find a solution that's right for you. Tired of getting bullied, just fill out a service request form for additional information.

Starting point is 00:00:46 Best of all, consultations are free and discreet. Looking for a new job, rentahitman.com even offers a career portal. More on that later in our story. Now, this might sound awfully silly. Because it is. But one 18-year-old woman from South Florida didn't get the memo that murder-for-hire organizations don't exactly operate so openly on the clear web in 2023. The site was originally created to advertise a cybersecurity company that never took off. According to website owner Bob

Starting point is 00:01:18 Innes of South Lake Tahoe, California, Jasmine Paez of Miami completed a service request that included pictures of her three-year-old son who has not been named. She even included details about her little boy, including an exact location where he'd be. Allegedly, Jasmine wanted her son killed within a week of her request and had offered to pay rent to Hitman $3,000 for their services. Jasmine also used an alias and indicated that her safe word was, put me in coach. We'll get into the rest of the story in just one minute. Please stay with us for the following ad. It not only supports the show, but it helps us support local charities in our area. This week's episode has been brought to you by Morgan and Morgan,

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Starting point is 00:02:53 If you're ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan and Morgan. For more information, go to for the people.com slash the misery machine or dial pound law. That's pound 529 from your cell phone. Thanks and back to the episode. Getting a service request of this nature didn't necessarily set off warning signs for Bob, who allegedly gets hundreds of similar requests each week. It amazes me at the number of requests the website gets on a monthly basis. It's shocking, it's scary. However, Jasmine's request set off red flags. He said, the ability to research names and addresses and verify the intended target

Starting point is 00:03:32 lived in a particular address, that to me is a red flag. If that information is corroborated, to me, that is something that needs to be looked at, and that's why I referred it. Bob flagged the request and send it to the Miami-Dade Police Department multiple times, but each time he received pushback. He was repeatedly referred to Crime Stoppers USA, an organization that spanned the United States to create a network of local programs that work together to prevent and solve crimes and communities and schools across the nation. The problem was, Crime Stoppers wasn't taking his referral seriously either. When Bob insisted that the request was genuine, Crime Stoppers allegedly advised him that they would send a cease and desist letter if he didn't stop contacting them.

Starting point is 00:04:18 For an organization whose mission it is to establish themselves as the premier community-based crime-solving program in the United States. That is pretty screwed up, if you ask me. Crime Stoppers USA Chair Chris Cameron did have this to say, however, and I quote, After repeatedly telling Robert we were not interested in sponsoring his site, we asked him to not contact us about that again. We work with the community to help solve crime. Therefore, Rent a Hitman does not meet our values and mission as they try to entice the bad

Starting point is 00:04:52 guys to reach out to them, end quote. I don't know, Chris. This sounds like some pretty strange gatekeeping to me. Thankfully, after a third call to the Miami-Dade Police non-emergency number, a detective was finally assigned to Bob's complaint. On July 18, 2023, Jasmine was finally arrested and charged with first-degree homicide solicitation and unlawful use of a communications device. She's currently being held in the county jail on a $15,000 bond, and a judge has ordered her to stay away from her toddler, who is now in the care of her grandmother.

Starting point is 00:05:29 As of the date of this recording, a future hearing date has yet to be established, but the Florida Department of Children and Families is involved in the case. She went on a website to hire a hitman. 18-year-old Jasmine Paz faced a judge Wednesday after investigators say she tried to get her young son killed. Her actions, even shocking the judge. What? To kill her own child? To kill a roadside, I didn't get that far.

Starting point is 00:05:54 Jasmine later bonded out, and her father had this to share. 18-year-old Jasmine Baez walked out of jail without saying a word, but her dad speaking out saying there's more to the story. My daughter is a little girl who was born with health problems. She has liquid retained in her neck. She had 12 surgeries. She lost the ability to move her face. She's been bullied in school.

Starting point is 00:06:18 They called her the monster. The father also added that he's confident the justice system will bring out the truth. However, Jasmine's neighbors had a very different reaction. One neighbor too scared to go on camera tells me she never saw the Paz family, but says she's mortified with all this happening just a few doors down. I've never seen anything like this. To do something like this, what could be going through her mind, she's so young. On Monday, August 28, 2023, the Miami.

Starting point is 00:06:51 day police department announced that they had made a second arrest in connection with this derange murder for hire plot. While searching Jasmine's cell phone, police became aware of the existence of 18-year-old Gamalil Soza. Further examination revealed conversations between the two teens that indicated that her toddler was the only thing that stood between them. Allegedly, Gommeliel said to Jasmine, the kid is the problem. I hope you see that. All I ever wanted was to free you. I told told you about the kid, you won't do anything, you do it, and I'll think about coming back." In response, Jasmine claimed that she took her son out to the woods and left him there to be eaten by bears or to drown in the water.

Starting point is 00:07:34 Gamalil, of course, responded by asking her for pictures. Much like Jasmine, Gamaliyal was charged with first-degree homicide solicitation, an unlawful use of a communications device, and he cannot have contact with a toddler or anyone under the age of 18. His bond was also set at $15,000. Now I'm not saying that the police department is in the wrong here, but it really seems curious that they would arrest and charge Gamalil for the same crime just for having a conversation with Jasmine.

Starting point is 00:08:04 Yes, it is a screwed up conversation, a very screwed up conversation, but it's a far cry from soliciting a hitman, and as far as we know, he never explicitly told Jasmine to kill her child. It does make me wonder if they found more information on the phone that. that's not been released yet. In the wake of the arrest, the Miami-Dade Police Department faced some criticism with regards to how this case was handled.

Starting point is 00:08:30 Because of the fact that it involved in online allegations. So that's what caused a little bit of a delay when he made him call a couple of times. But then once they were able to get a grasp on exactly what he was referring to and how this is playing out, that's when that call taker passed that information

Starting point is 00:08:50 to the on-duty supervisor at our Communications Bureau. Communications Bureau has been in talks with us all day because of the fact that this is so bizarre where we can utilize this now and create a best practice because of the fact that simply because you run into something that's a little bizarre and it's the first time you run into it doesn't mean you'll never run into it again. The craziest part of the story for me is that this wasn't even the first time that rentahitman.com made news in 2023. In April of this year, Tennessee,

Starting point is 00:09:20 Air National Guardsman Josiah Garcia was arrested. Remember that careers portal that I mentioned at the beginning of the episode? Allegedly, Josiah applied to be a hitman and proceeded to tell an undercover FBI agent that he needed money and thought he would be good at killing people because of his military experience and that he was an excellent marksman. He first came across the website while searching the internet for contract mercenary jobs. Josiah allegedly submitted an application on February 16th and sent several follow-up emails. He included his name, his address, his phone number, his date of birth, and a photo of his Tennessee driver's license.

Starting point is 00:10:04 But hey, he mentioned in his application that he wanted a job to support his kid, so at least he's got that going for him, unlike Jasmine. Now, speaking of Jasmine, if she would have just Googled rentahitman.com, she would have found this article herself. But let's be honest, she doesn't seem to be the sharpest crayon in the box. I think that we can all agree that this case is rather bizarre for a multitude of reasons, but I'm certainly glad that the Miami-Day Police Department finally decided to take Bob seriously. Although Jasmine probably wouldn't have found a contract killer,

Starting point is 00:10:39 who knows what could have happened to this little boy if she became frustrated with her lack of results. For all we know, she might have decided to take him out to the Everglades to die on his own. What do you think should happen in this case? Do you think that Jasmine should have been allowed to bond out? Furthermore, do you think that the police had enough evidence to charge Gamalil? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below.

The Misery Machine - The Case of Jazmin Paez

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