Why Do this Guy’s Girlfriends Want him Dead?

January 16th, 2015. By LucyC

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time. Or not. In any event, one 57-year old social worker from Brownville, New York decided she’d had enough—enough of her daughter’s ex-boyfriend, and father of her two-year old grandson, so she hired a hit man to kill him and feed him to the crocodiles. (Would I make this up?) Luckily for the ex—the “hit man” turned out to be an undercover detective and mamma has been arrested and charged with both second degree criminal solicitation and conspiracy in the second degree.

Melisa Rae Schonfield tried to hire Detective Dave Pustizzi to kill Erneto Negrillo, a resident of Florida. Pustizzi was also supposed to be the one serving Negrillo to the crocs. Nothing vague about those intentions.

Apparently, a tipster gave the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department a heads up about Melisa Schonfield’s plans. “We got a tip from a concerned citizen,” Detective Dave Pustizzi told HuffPost. According to court documents, Schonfield, met the undercover detective posing as a hit man at a Walmart parking lot in Watertown. What is it with Walmart parking lots? 

Schonfield had the readies—she agreed to pay the undercover detective $11,000 for Negrillo’s murder, according to police. She suggested the best way to dispose of the body would be to “throw it to the alligators,” police said. She told the supposed contract killer that her husband, a Watertown dentist, was aware of what she was doing and “even made a smart remark about her getting caught,” according to the court documents. Mrs. Schonfield was taken into custody after giving the undercover officer a $5,500 down payment, police said. I wonder what the fee was for feeding the crocs? Of note, neither the daughter or her father have been implicated in the attempted “hit”.

Needless to say, Negrillo is shocked, and Alexis Schonfield—the ex-girlfriend—is also equally stunned.

“It’s just f–ked up,” 36-year old Negrillo, told The Huffington Post in an exclusive interview. “I don’t know why she would want to kill me. I haven’t spoken to her in a long time.” Maybe that’s why…

Negrillo and Alexis parted company in 2012, reportedly, with Alexis moving to New York with their young son. Negrillo stayed in Florida—in retrospect—not such a bad idea.

According to HuffPo, Negrillo said he had no recent issues with anyone in the family. “I wasn’t fighting” for custody, he said. “It was already settled.”

As for the murder plot, he said, “I have no idea why. I can’t believe she went this far.” Ah—just how far would have been acceptable?

“The only thing I can say, because I am a mother, is she was trying to protect my son and she got tired of watching me cry,” 31-year old Alexis said. “I’ve been an emotional basket case the past two years.” Had anyone thought of therapy?

But here’s the kicker—Alexis said she learned of her mother’s arrest on Facebook. Seriously. “I had no idea what was going on,” she said. “I thought she was going to go visit her friends in Rochester over the weekend. When I found out, I was in shock.” Bet the friends in Rochester are relieved.

Schonfield said her “on and off again “relationship with Negrillo was volatile. “I think emotional and verbal domestic abuse is a big joke to people … [but] it’s just as bad as physical violence,” she said. “It’s just that the scars are not visible,” she told HuffPo.

There’s a weird twist here, though, which is that this is not the first time Negrillo has allegedly inspired someone to want to kill him. Three years ago he was attacked by the  pistol-wielding husband of yet another an ex-girlfriend, according to HuffPo. The husband clubbed Negrillo twice on the head with a .38-caliber pistol and a shot was fired during their struggle, police said. Negrillo was treated for head wounds. The not so lucky husband is reportedly awaiting trial on an assault charge. Has anyone here heard of talk therapy?

“He came to kill me,” Negrillo told HuffPost. “He attacked me with a gun and everything. It got ugly and I defended myself.”

While we might be tempted to think this guy is either very unlucky or has some really bad juju going on, Negrillo sees it quite differently. In addition to being grateful to the police, he said “God really looked out for me. He really did.”

He feels sorry for Melisa Schonfield.  “It didn’t have to go this way—she didn’t have to do what she did,” he said. “She ruined her reputation and now there’s no grandma in the picture for my son. I feel bad.”

This was posted on Friday, January 16th, 2015 at 3:17 pm and is filed under Crazy Sh*t Lawyers See . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.