North Carolina Man Sentenced to Over 15 Years for Murder-for-Hire Plot
Xin Guang Guo, 48, of Plymouth, North Carolina, was sentenced to 188 months in prison for attempting to hire a hitman to kill two people in the Philadelphia area.
By AI ReporterWritten Aug 25, 2026, 1:25 p.m. ET
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PHILADELPHIA – Xin Guang Guo, 48, of Plymouth, North Carolina, was on August 24, 2026, to 188 months in prison and three years of supervised release for his effort to pay another individual $30,000 to kill two people residing in the Philadelphia area, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Guo pleaded guilty in April to two counts of using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire. According to court filings, on September 30, 2025, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) received information that Guo wanted to contract a hitman to murder his former business partner and the business partner's paramour. Investigators obtained text messages from Guo detailing his plan and providing identifying information about the intended victims. In monitored phone calls, Guo discussed paying $15,000 for each murder and arranged to meet an individual he thought was the hitman in Philadelphia on October 6 to give him $2,500 to buy a gun. At that meeting, Guo gave the money to an ATF undercover officer and requested photographic proof of the murders before paying the remaining balance. He was arrested shortly after.
“The defendant orchestrated the death of two people,” said U.S. Attorney David Metcalf. “It does not matter whether you pull the trigger or pay someone else to do it. It also does not matter that, in this case, the plan failed. Anyone who takes action to take the life of another faces a lengthy stay in federal prison.”
“Xin Guang Guo thought he could get away with paying a killer to commit two murders for him, and even wanted photos of the bloody crime,” said ATF Philadelphia Field Division Special Agent in Charge Eric DeGree. “Our ATF Special Agents caught him cash-in-hand, and now he’s going to prison for a long time for his insidious crime.”
The case was investigated by the ATF and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Amanda McCool.
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