A New York bank manager sentenced last week to 9.5 years behind bars for a foiled murder-for-hire scheme against her brother-in-law allegedly told the would-be hitman that "rat poison can do a great job."
Reshma Massarone, a 40-year-old branch manager at Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, plotted to kill her sister's husband over Facebook Messenger between July 2023 and August 2023, according to court documents, and was caught on security footage wiring a $2,500 down payment to a would-be hitman at a Western Union kiosk inside a Walgreens.
Massarone asked her years-long friend to kill the man while he was traveling with family in Guyana, according to court documents. But that friend, who is a Guyanese police officer, went undercover to build a case against her, leading to her guilty plea to murder-for-hire. She was sentenced on Aug. 27.
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"You take care of business and you be a rich man," Massarone wrote to the would-be hitman in one exchange. In another, she told him that "either way, if I find somebody to do the job, you’re going to get blamed, so cut the bulls**t and let’s get it done."
The plot unraveled when the would-be hitman contacted the victim and his wife, who "went to the United States Embassy in Guyana to report that Massarone ... had placed a hit on the victim" to take place as soon as July 25, 2023.
Massarone's friend recorded a call in which Massarone made it clear that she wanted her brother-in-law dead, saying that the solicited murder should look like a robbery. That call was later translated by a DEA special agent and a native Guyanese speaker and used as evidence in court.
In a presentencing submission, Massarone's attorney said that his client had acted "completely out of character" and in a "state of rage," claiming that she had been provoked by her brother-in-law's "twenty-five-year systemic harassment."
The would-be victim was "clearly scorned," because he "was not given the opportunity to marry [Massarone] at age 15." Instead, the defense wrote, the man married Massarone's then-16-year-old sister.
Massarone tried to advance her career in banking, her attorney wrote, but the victim "continued to ruin her professional life by systematically calling her [place of] employment in an attempt to get her fired."
"The man spent the last 25 years attempting to ruin Ms. Massarone in every way possible, including but not limited to, harassing her beautiful and highly intelligent eldest daughter who the ‘victim’ attempted to get disqualified from a beauty pageant and is a Dean’s List student in college," the defense memo said. "What prevents this man from calling up a law school she intends on applying to? What prevents this so-called victim from continuing his disparaging remarks on social media of Ms. Massarone’s youngest daughter or husband?"
"Nothing, is the answer," the memo added.
"She lost jobs, paid attorneys, called the police, had orders of protection in place, relocated her family, had security systems installed in her home, and nothing stopped [the victim] from his continuous attack of her," her attorney wrote.
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At least one order of protection was issued on Massarone's behalf against the victim, according to Queens Criminal Court documents.
Massarone is no stranger to the courts – she has sued two banks over the past two years, claiming that they had racially discriminated against her while she had worked there. Both cases were tossed out.
Prosecutors were less than sympathetic, with U.S. Attorney Damian Williams saying the woman's "chilling plan to have a member of her own family murdered for the low price of ten thousand dollars" was "unthinkably heartless," after her sentencing.
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"Certainly, the victim's conduct is not to be commended," prosecutors wrote in their own sentencing memo. "But it should also not be considered so harassing, or abusive, to [justify Massarone's behavior]."
"The defendant's victim-blaming should not be rewarded, and her request for a sentence reduction... should be denied," prosecutors wrote ahead of the Aug. 27 sentencing.
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Previously, Massarone's family had accused her of exploiting a dying relative by taking out an insurance policy on her, shedding light on the tensions within the family.
"This cold-hearted animal attempted to exploit my dying sister . . . so this is her karma that came back full circle," one relative wrote on Facebook.
"That woman is evil," another posted, the New York Post reported. "She has been torturing and tormenting people for a very long time."
"She wasn’t satisfied, she didn’t get her way, so she wanted to murder him," one family member told the outlet. "I think her next step was to get him assassinated or murdered, because she was stuck with these attorney’s fees and all that . . . I think, in her mind, it was to get rid of the problem rather than go to litigation."
Massarone's lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
