NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 23, 2007

CONTACT: Jean McNeil
Public Information Officer
(208) 334-1211

COEUR D’ALENE MAN CONVICTED OF ATTEMPTED MURDER-FOR-HIRE
Jury Says Paul Driggers Tried to Have Ex-Wife Killed

After a mistrial last month, a southern Idaho jury today convicted Paul William Driggers, 54, of offering another man $10,000 to kill Driggers’ ex-wife because Driggers was facing child molestation and gun charges involving his ex-wife, and because he wanted his children back.

According to testimony at trial, Driggers contacted an associate in prison and asked to be put in touch with someone who could do a job for him. He got the name of a third man who was then living in California.

In April 2006, using the name “Huey,” Driggers contacted the California man and induced him to come to Idaho to discuss a “business proposition.” On April 25, Driggers and the man met at a Coeur d’Alene restaurant and discussed a number of illegal things they could do, including counterfeiting, producing precursor chemicals for the manufacture of methamphetamine, identity theft and false charity campaigns. After the two left the restaurant, Driggers told the California man that he wanted his ex-wife killed because she had accused him of child molestation and of illegally possessing a gun. Driggers offered the man $10,000 for the murder, and said he would put a down payment into the man’s bank account. On July 12, Driggers deposited $1,000 into the account.

When Driggers called the man from a pay phone on July 21, the man contacted the Idaho State Police. An ISP detective and an FBI agent went to the phone’s location, where they observed Driggers using the phone and his gold jaguar sitting nearby. The California man later identified Driggers’ drivers license photo as the man he knew as “Huey.”

In a call later that day that was recorded by police, Driggers and the California man made arrangements to meet in Coeur d’Alene on July 25 to finalize the murder plan. When the two met in a Lowe’s parking lot, the California man was wearing a wire. Driggers showed him photographs of Driggers’ ex-wife, and the two discussed the details of the murder, including using walkie-talkies to communicate, and how to dispose of the body. In a final phone call the next day, Driggers called the murder “a go-ahead.”

Driggers was arrested on a federal complaint on August 2 and later indicted by a grand jury. He has been in custody pending trial.

Driggers faces a maximum penalty of ten years in prison. Sentencing was set for May 21 before U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge at the federal courthouse in Coeur d’Alene.

The investigation was conducted by the North Idaho Regional Violent Crime Task Force (NIRVCTF), comprised of personnel from the Idaho State Police, Coeur d’Alene Police Department, Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department, Post Falls Police Department, Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The task force is funded under the FBI’s Safe Streets Initiative. It targets habitual violent offenders and those responsible for the most serious crimes committed in North Idaho.

“This conviction is yet another example of the outstanding level of cooperation among law enforcement agencies that exists in North Idaho,” U.S. Attorney Tom Moss said. “A dangerous man has been taken off the streets, and Coeur d’Alene is a safer place.”