A Kentucky man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for masterminding the murder of his former girlfriend’s ex-husband, according to court documents. Freddy Gonzalez, 40, admitted to conspiring to commit a murder-for-hire, using a firearm in the process. The victim, 43-year-old Brian Russell, was killed in his home in Franklin, a city in the southern part of Kentucky.
Gonzalez, who managed a café at the Kentucky Downs casino and hotel, enlisted one of his employees, Xavior Posey, to carry out the murder. Posey shot Russell at his residence on December 30, 2020. Prosecutors revealed that Russell and his ex-wife, who were high school sweethearts and had two children together, had been married for 16 years before separating and divorcing in 2018. They continued to maintain contact for the sake of their children.
The ex-wife began a relationship with Gonzalez in 2020, but ended it after approximately eight months. Despite the breakup, Gonzalez continued to obsess over her, even as she oscillated between him and Russell. Prosecutors stated that Gonzalez stalked her relentlessly, inundating her with text messages, secretly installing a tracking device on her car, and orchestrating unplanned meetings with her.
In mid-December 2020, she decided to reconcile with her ex-husband, which infuriated Gonzalez. He threatened Russell with a gun and then devised a plan to have him killed. Gonzalez promised Posey $2,000, a pickup truck, and a raise at the café in exchange for murdering Russell. He provided Posey with the murder weapon, showed him where Russell lived, and even drew a map of Russell’s home.
The two men communicated via text messages, using the phrase “cleaning the kitchen” as a code for executing the murder. On the day of the murder, Posey approached Russell’s home around 5:30 a.m., pretending to have car trouble. When Russell opened the door, Posey shot him once in the head and twice in the chest before fleeing the scene.
Police officers responded to a report of gunshots and found Russell severely wounded, struggling to breathe, and pleading for help. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The two men later dismantled the weapon and discarded it in the Barren River. Gonzalez was arrested for stalking after police discovered the tracking device in the woman’s car. While in custody, he made a phone call in which he reminded the person on the other end to tell Posey that their conversations were only about “cleaning the café.”
Posey was arrested on January 9, 2021, on outstanding warrants. At that time, police discovered Gonzalez’s hand-drawn map of Russell’s home and the incriminating text messages between the two men. They were indicted in May 2021. During the sentencing, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Greg Stivers described the crime as “the most outrageous, unimaginable crime I can think of.” Posey, who also pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.