(La Porte, IN) - A man is accused of hiring a hitman from inside the La Porte County Jail to kill the mother of his children and her new boyfriend.

 

The hitman was an undercover police officer, acting on a tip, who negotiated the terms of the murder-for-hire plot.

 

Those are among the new details obtained in the case against Daniel Shaffer, 45, who stands charged in La Porte Circuit Court with two counts each of Attempted Murder and Conspiracy to Commit Murder.

 

According to court records, Shaffer was in the jail waiting for a verdict on his prior auto theft and drug related-charges, when he allegedly began talking to a cellmate about wanting the individuals killed over an ongoing child custody battle. His cellmate told him he knew people on the outside who could possibly carry out the task.

 

Word then leaked out to authorities, who sent a police officer posing as a hitman to the jail to gauge his level of interest per La Porte County Police Detective James Fish during a probable cause hearing on Friday.

 

“We were not exactly sure how serious he was at the time,” he said.

 

Fish said the undercover investigation resulted in a deal where Shaffer would pay $4,000 per body, allegedly agreeing to a down payment of $1,000 in construction tools and making cash payments to retire the balance, ranging anywhere from $200 to $300 a month.

 

Fish testified that the undercover investigation included taking pictures of the man and woman coming to and from their residence on Rumely Street in La Porte, and showing the images to Shaffer who confirmed it was them he wanted killed before an upcoming child custody hearing.

 

“He did not want to know the details. He just wanted it done,” he said.

 

Fish noted it was uncovered that a newborn infant was in the home, but Shaffer did not want the baby harmed. He also revealed Shaffer, from the jail, made arrangements for the officer, whom he thought was the hitman, to pick up the tools, consisting of a wire stripper, a battery-powered skill saw, etc.

 

Eventually, he said, Shaffer apparently became suspicious that he had been "set up" when the killings did not occur.

 

If convicted, Shaffer would face an up to 40-year sentence on each of the attempted murder counts, and 10-to-30 years on each of the remaining charges.