HOUSTON – Death threats against county judge and Houston City Council member in murder-for-hire case unfounded, the District Attorney confirmed.
Councilman Michael Kubosh, who acted as bondsman for Leon Jacob on a prior charge, said he alerted police to the plan after Jacob told him he planned to hire a hit man to kill his ex, as well as the ex-husband of his veterinarian girlfriend, Valerie McDaniel.
Kubosh said he was afraid someone was going to get hurt, which is why he went to police.
Kubosh told KPRC 2 Friday that he was contacted by county Judge Jan Krocker who first received the death threat, which Krocker told him was made by phone Thursday afternoon. Kubosh said Krocker told him that he was included in the phone threat, which he said was made from a room at the Lisa Motel on Hempstead Road at Antoine Drive in northwest Houston.
Harris County District Attorney, Dane Schiller released the following statement:
“There was no threat to the councilman, but threatening words against judges. The matter was promptly and thoroughly investigated and deemed not to be an actual threat.
“The councilman's name was mentioned in a rambling about recent news events by a mentally ill man who has been a known courthouse nuisance, with a history of harassing phone calls, for more than a decade.
“Whenever there is a potential threat, the matter is investigated. If there is deemed to be a legitimate threat, decisive action is taken immediately to safeguard all those involved.”
The Harris County Sheriff's Office Critical Incident Response Team began an investigation and found the man who is accused of making the threats. An interview was conducted and decided along with the judge that no criminal act had been committed.
Investigators said the man's mental health was evaluated and he was warned from contacting with any other judicial officials.
Plot allegations outlined
According to Dane Schiller, of the Harris County District Attorney's Office, the exes were notified of the plot to kill them, and they teamed up with an undercover officer to pose for photos portraying realistic crime scenes to convince McDaniel and Jacob that they had been killed.
While McDaniel was out on bond in the case, police said she jumped to her death on March 27 from the River Oaks high-rise where she lived.
Jacob is charged with soliciting capital murder. He is being held without bond.
Kubosh said he alerted officials about the plan after Jacob asked him to put him in contact with another one of his clients, who he had already paid to “take care of this matter.”
The matter, Kubosh said, was a woman who Jacob was accused of stalking.
Kubosh said police were able to track down the man who Jacob said he had paid. That man told police that he had been hired by Jacob to kill the complainant in Jacob’s stalking case, according to court records.
An undercover officer then accompanied the hired man to a meeting with Jacob, where the officer listened to Jacob talk about the plot to kill his ex, according to court records. That was when McDaniel’s desire to have her ex-husband killed came to light, according to the records.
Investigators said the couple offered to pay $20,000 and hand over two Cartier watches to have their ex’s killed.
McDaniel tells her side
A day before she was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, McDaniel jumped to from her River Oaks high-rise.
A letter and recordings by McDaniel that she left specifically for KPRC 2, she said she wanted her story shared.
READ: Valerie McDaniel’s recordings and letters
She detailed how she and Jacob met and how they fell in love.
McDaniel said that after her divorce, her ex-husband was still causing problems. She said Jacob offered to help intimidate her ex, but when that didn’t work he suggested that he might need to be hurt.
“I didn’t want to hurt (him),” McDaniel said in the recording. “I never did.”
Jacob’s troubled past
Jacob has a criminal arrest history for domestic violence, aggravated stalking, intimidation and cyberstalking, according to court documents.
He is accused of assaulting his ex-girlfriend in January and continuing to contact her afterward. Jacob was arrested Feb. 6 and was charged, which is why, investigators said, he hired a hit man.
"The co-defendant says he was looking for somebody to kill a witness for his pending stalking charge," according to a probable-cause statement read by a judge Saturday in court.
Jacob and McDaniel didn't know the hit man with whom they made plans was an undercover police officer, authorities said.
