For the week of  October 24 - 30, 2001

Man charged with 
trying to hire 2 murders

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By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer

A California man has been charged with allegedly trying to arrange the murder of two men while he was incarcerated at the Blaine County Jail. One of those allegedly targeted was a police officer.

Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Thomas alleges Louis Eugene Cunningham, of Laguna Beach, began soliciting the murder of Jesus "Chewy" Vega and Blaine County detective Scott Ward sometime around April.

Cunningham was one of 13 men arrested Feb. 7 during a massive Narcotics Enforcement Team bust of mid- to high-level drug traffickers in the Wood River Valley.

Since then, Cunningham has been awaiting trial in jail. The prosecuting attorney’s office alleges that Cunningham wanted Vega killed before he was scheduled to testify against Cunningham in a drug trial on Aug. 14. Cunnigham’s trial was later rescheduled for Nov. 19.

Cunningham wanted detective Scott Ward killed because he was an investigator in the drugs case, the prosecuting attorney’s office alleges.

A bail amount of $500,000 has been set for the two felony charges of solicitation of murder. An additional $1 million bail had been set for Cunningham’s drug’s trafficking charges.

Cunningham is currently being held at the Twin Falls County Jail.

Cunningham was arraigned Tuesday in Fifth District Court on two counts of murder for hire and a felony persistent violator enhancement due to previous felony convictions.

Vega was apparently a key witness in the case involving Cunningham.

On March 4, another witness for the drug trial visited Cunningham in Blaine County Jail, where Cunningham suggested he could not be convicted on the drugs charges if something happened to Vega, a 13-page affidavit by Idaho State Police Detective Scott Ward states.

A jail inmate said also that Cunningham "brought it up in the cell and said if we all pitch in $200 or something like that, we all get together and do it. If Chewy (Vega) was dead, he was not able to show up for court, the case gets dismissed," the affidavit states.

Another jail inmate said that Cunningham approached him while he watched television in a cell and asked if he had ever killed a man, then specifically mentioned killing Vega and Ward, the affadavit states.

The price for the hits was $10,000 for Vega and $15,000 for Ward, the money for which Cunningham said he would be able to raise after completing a divorce and selling his van and motorcycle, court records state.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was called into the case after Cunningham solicited yet another cell mate, court records state.

Sheriff Walt Femling wired the cell mate with a body transmitter on July 9 and recorded further comments by Cunningham about the planned murders, the affidavit states.

A method for the planned killings was never specified. Rather, the court documents state that Cunningham told the cell mate to use "your own method" after he was free on bail.

Ward also stated that he heard Cunningham say "killing the officer would be five times as good, but would bring five times as much trouble."

Cunningham worked out a system for he and the cell mate to talk in code with payment for Vega’s murder to be referred to as payment for the "car," Ward stated.

Law enforcement collected further evidence against Vega by monitoring his telephone conversations from inside jail.

Court records state Cunningham was previously convicted in Vancouver, Wash., in 1977 for felony possession of cocaine; in Salem, Ore., in 1988 for felony possession of a controlled substance, possession of a weapon and second-degree kidnapping; and in San Diego County, Calif., in 1992 for felony possession of methamphetamines.

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