East Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - Because of one man, police were able to hear all about a murder-for-hire plot hatched in Fulton during the summer.
Quentin Hicks has pleaded guilty to trying to have his estranged wife killed.
But the man he tried to hire to help him – William Scruton - went to police with the details.
Hicks initially approached Scruton years after he had worked on his house. Hicks, who was going through a nasty divorce, called Scruton under the pretense of having him perform more construction on the home.
When the two met, however, they talked about more than the house project.
“But he says, ‘But I have another job’…and I said, ‘What’s that.’ And he says, ‘I want somebody to put a hammer in my wife’s head,’” Scruton said.
Scruton said that Hicks created an elaborate plan that included how he would hide money at his Fulton house to help pay for the job. Scruton said he couldn’t sleep that night. He then decided to test Hicks, even making up a hit man who could do the job, just to make sure Hicks was serious. Scruton said that within a couple of days, he had no doubt Hicks wanted his wife dead.
Scruton went to the police, who eventually convinced him to wear a wire to record details of the plot.
“A lot of things were said and I says ‘How do you want my guy to do her, cause at first I remember it was a hammer.’ Now he’s got the razor knife that he was sharpening his carpenter’s pencil with that he drew out the map of the house and he says, ‘I want her jugular cut.’ He says tell your guy not to leave until the last bit of blood drops to the floor,’” Scruton said.
Shortly after the meeting ended, so did the plot, when Scruton called one of the investigators sitting close by.
“I says ‘I got the map, I got the money, it’s not a lot of money…I got some money, it’s a down payment, get him,’ and the next thing I know, I look up the street and the Fulton cop was already on him,” Scruton said.
Scruton went to police because he knew if he just ignored Hicks, the man would try to find someone else to help him. He says it was months later that Hicks discovered Scruton had exposed him to police.
Hicks accepted a plea that will keep him behind bars for two to eight years, but Scruton is scared about what might happen when he is released.
Even now, Scruton is concerned that the man he helped put in prison might get someone else to hurt or kill him – or his family.
Scruton wants some assurance that police will be able to protect him. The Oswego County Sheriff’s Office says that they will be notified when Hicks gets out and Scruton can be told too.
