A former Harford County Public Schools teacher and the student with whom he was engaged in a romantic relationship plotted to have the teacher’s wife shot to death outside a Harford County restaurant for $600 in a murder-for-hire plot earlier this year, police alleged in court documents.
Ethan R. Estevez, 31, of the 400 block of Darby Lane in Bel Air was charged Aug. 6 with conspiracy to commit first degree murder; in a separate case, he also faces a single count of sexual abuse of a minor and two counts of fourth degree sex offense dating to June. It is unclear whether the student faces charges in connection with the murder plot as juvenile records are not publicly available.
Estevez was hired in August 2012 and taught in the Alternative Education Program at the Center for Educational Opportunity, located at Aberdeen High School, according to HCPS spokeswoman Jillian Lader. She said Estevez was put on administrative leave on March 7 “pending an outside agency investigation” and was fired on June 4.
According to charging documents, the relationship between Estevez and the 17-year-old female student, identified in court records by the initials “LAL,” came to light on March 14, when the Harford County Child Advocacy Center was alerted to suspected child sexual abuse. At the same time, investigators received information that “LAL” told another student that she and Estevez planned to kill Estevez’s wife, and could have an individual commit the act for $600.
In an initial interview, the student told investigators that she was in love with Estevez but denied planning his wife’s death. Detectives subsequently subpoenaed text messages from the girl’s phone dating to late February, in which she discussed and appeared to solicit the murder of Estevez’s wife.
“Like it has to look like an accident because of life insurance and stuff,” the student wrote in a Feb. 21 text to an unidentified subject. The student included details of Estevez’s wife’s place of employment and working hours, and asks the recipient, “Can he still do it?” to which the recipient of the text replied, “Yeah.”
Two days later, the student texted the same person again to ask, “Do you think he will though?”
“If not we need to find someone else who can take care of her on Thursday,” she wrote, following that two days later with another request. “Hey talk to guy sorry i keep buggin u about it we just really need it to happen before sundsay [sic].”
According to the charging documents, after investigators obtained the texts, a second interview was conducted with “LAL,” in which she allegedly stated, “Like I was really not gonna kill her.” Police said the student claimed Estevez discussed killing his wife with her “a few times,” but the student said she did not take him seriously. She claimed he talked about making his wife’s death look like an accident for insurance purposes. The student also claimed Estevez suggested staging a hit-and-run accident, and that they could be together “if his wife was gone completely.”
The student told police that she texted someone about conducting the murder, an individual referred to in court documents as “KS.” However, she claimed that several days after initially contacting him, she visited “KS” at home and told him that “it was a joke and [she] didn’t really want [Estevez’s wife] killed.”
However, in a July 25 interview with detectives, “KS” allegedly described a detailed plan to commit the murder. According to the man, the student did visit him at home in February–but rather than dismissing the plot as a joke, she called Estevez and put him on speaker phone. “KS” told investigators that the student asked Estevez whether he was serious about “giving move to his wife”; when Estevez asked what that phrase meant, the student allegedly described it specifically as hurting or killing his wife. Estevez allegedly agreed.
During the call, “KS” said Estevez laid out his plan to commit the murder. Estevez allegedly said that he would make dinner reservations with his wife in the next few days and “would need someone to drive-by in a dark colored vehicle and use a gun with a silencer to shoot his wife.” According to “KS,” Estevez added that his wife should be shot first and then he should be shot in the arm to make the crime appear random. He promised to pay half of the money before the shooting, and the remainder after. “KS” told police that he could not remember the name of the restaurant but said it is in Harford County and that part of the restaurant faces a public street. Asked by detectives whether he ever intended on committing the act, “KS” said no, and said he had no further contact with the student about harming Estevez’s wife after that phone call.
If convicted of the conspiracy charge, Estevez faces life in prison; a preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 8. The charge of sexual abuse of a minor carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison; each count of fourth degree sex offense carries a maximum of one year in prison and/or a fine of $1,000. A jury trial in that case is scheduled for Nov. 3 at 9:30 a.m. in Harford County Circuit Court.
Dagger Education Editor Cindy Mumby contributed additional reporting to this story.
Didn’t we just have a few cases like this last year with special ed teachers? It seems like the Harford school system doesn’t do a good job of screening their applicants but I guess the teachers’ union protects the rights of preverts and pedophiles during the hiring process.
If wasn’t special education teachers involved, it was para educators.
No. HCEA has virtually no influence over back ground checks and fingerprinting of new employees. All staff who work in schools are back ground checked using a FBI database. College student interns cannot even work in a school without the background checks.
It is without any class to make a comment that HCEA protects sexual predators. Despicable.
The fingerprint check only looks for prior criminal behavior. It doesn’t include credit history (good vs bad decision making skills) checks or psych evals (nobody needs crazies or unconvicted pedophiles).
You do realize how much all that would cost right? You can’t even honor the pay scale.
cdev:
Credit checks are $25/person when I do them for prospective employees. The cost pales in comparison to the damage an employee could do if motivated by money (such as selling our bid price to a competitor).
OK so 5,400 credit checks’ plus how much for the psych evals?
I hope Mr. Estevez spends the majority of the rest of his miserable life in prison. I hope the courts grant his wife an uncontested divorce and whatever property she wants. I also hope that the student involved has some prison time coming to her as well. Her “it was only a joke” defense doesn’t come across that well in view of other evidence made public. She appears to be an active participant in the conspiracy, and despite being underage she needs to bear some responsibility for her part.
No steps or pay increases…you get what you pay for.
If he hadn’t been working-to-rule, he wouldn’t have had time to plot his wife’s murder.
LOL. What a sociopathic troll you are. You must know what it feels like to have a lot of time on your hands. Thankfully for Harford County’s intelligentsia, you make time between internet porn sessions to comment on every other post. Hopefully Appleby’s does’t call tonight needing some extra staff to bus tables so we can all hear some more of your witty banter.
Pavel314
I don’t think this has anything to do with the association’s protection of teachers.
1. It is an association, not a union. There is a difference.
2. HCEA can only become involved in contractual issues, not performance or conduct matters.
3. Maybe if the County Council supported Harford County Teachers instead of voting themselves raises, we could retain and attract the highest quality teachers in Maryland. (By the way, the County Council is proposing raises for members who are PART-TIME! They will be earning more money than teachers who have been teaching FULL-TIME for YEARS! Their rational is that they need to attract high quality candidates!)
Oh, the irony!
1) Mr Burbey has used both terms to refer to HCEA.
3) You’re effectively comparing corporate board members to the mail room clerks.
Don’t believe anything you see in this case! Estevez was released on $25,000 bond for the supposed sexual involvement with a student. A known liar, Christopher Tabone, is prosecuting the case and he is also well known for making up false charges to force convictions he can’t prove. The entire murder routine is nothing but a fabrication to force this guy to take a deal involving the SEX case. Joseph Cassilly recently used known perjury in other cases in this corrupt county. Cassilly is nothing more than a rolling colostomy bag of lies that has ruined many people from the lies fabricated in his office. Joe you have to go!
If you have evidence, contact the state bar and the FBI. Both love to bust crooked lawyers.
It sounds like someone may be spewing their personal run-ins with the law regarding sexual abuse on this case. The only liar here is you. Get a real job and become a productive member of society rather than a mouth breathing joke of a human being who posts comments on the dagger all day. Mr. Estevaz and his little twit of a girlfriend deserve everything that is coming to them. I am confident that the Harford County State’s Attorney’s Office will handle this case and the evidence provided with the highest level professional and ethical practices.
What is a “mouth breathing joke”? You got me stumped.
Mouth breather: Someone so dumb they only breathe through their mouth, not their nose.
Did you just write: “highest level professional ethical practices” (sic) regarding an attorney?
BWAAAAHAHAHAHA! Stop drinking the kool-aid! Try to think about your choice of word usage before you key-stroke fool!
Now, Gatorade me bitch!
The Harford County State’s Attorney Office uses perjury, excuse me, known to be perjury, in its prosecutions all the time. This “Murder” case is nothing more than a fantasy of some lovesick teenager. I don’t care who they got corroborating whatever, its just the most ridiculous scheme I have ever heard. Murder for hire, for only $600, give me a break. A drive by shooting using a silencer and to top it off the guy would shoot him in the arm after offing the wife? Really, drive by shootings and accuracy don’t mix, that’s why so many bystanders get killed by stray bullets. Accuracy from a moving car using a silencer? its just not gonna happen. And after killing the wife, shoot him in the arm, during a drive by. This is a fictional work in progress. However, they got a hell of a liar to do the prosecuting. Cassilly is an idiot if he thinks this one is for real.
Everyone I arrested was innocent Souless Crusher. I am sure you and Headly must have been innocent to right?
Well if it isn’t the Carroll County wannabe himself. I can understand why you support the Crapbag Cassilly, being a fellow collector of feces yourself. Hey Marc, how do you get all that crap out of the portapotties you used to clean. Seriously, you are a scumbag just like Cassilly. Not only do you lie here on the Dagger, you used to lie all the time in your cases too, BurgerKing. Why don’t you keep your a$$ and mouth shut about matters that don’t concern you, tidy bowl man. By the way, why is it so important for a complete liar and idiot, like yourself, to be so concerned about a Sheriff’s Department that hates your guts? Marc, don’t pick this fight, believe me you don’t want it…….
Oh no Im ascared. Burger King. Did I lock your stupid butt up. You whine like most of the people I arrested. You seem angry. Don’t let you alligator mouth write checks you humming bird ass can’t cash there bud. Been down that road and it turned out badly for the people who made threats.
Mark, your a proven specimen of what happens to humans when they inbred.
That’s an interesting comment Hedley, considering Mark is a product of your mother.
Ha, I didn’t know you could write two sentences without mentioning Bane, guess I was wrong. So, should I consider this the gauntlet thrown ?
You really shouldn’t talk about moms considering that your old man used a pair of hip boots while your mom cried baa-baa.
Don’t mess with Mark “I used to own a port-a-pot company but it went down the Shtter” eaton, he is a bada$$. Remember, he sits at the computer with his cop hat, whistle and tighty whitties listening to YMCA.
The Harford County State’s Attorney Office can’t “handle this case and the evidence provided with the highest level professional and ethical practices”, because they don’t know the meaning of professional or ethical. They use perjury on regular basis, that’s not professional or ethical. How can you condone the perjury, the racially motivated prosecutions, the threats against the families of defendants and numerous constitutional violations? You just can’t. If Cassilly was an honorable man, he would’ve became a judge, but that didn’t happen because of his integrity issues. Cassilly will be remembered as a liar, that used liars to prosecute through the use of perjury. He should be tried and convicted in a Federal court for Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law! Cassilly should resign his current position and pull out of the State’s Attorney race simply because he is a liar, a racist and a Nazi. End of discussion.
What’s pathetic is the fact that teachers on here blame the lack of pay raises as the reason this allegedly happened. If this is true then there are a few bad apples in every workforce, that has nothing to do with your lack of step increases. Manage your money better, better yet go get a part time job during your 2 1/2 months off instead of typing outrageous comments on here. I hope that you are not educating our youth with this nonsense.
Teabilly – crawl back in to your bunker and indoctrinate your sheeple brain some more. Bah Bah ……..Bleat Bleat Bleat……….
It’s not the pay raises, it is the shear frustration with common core.
This is a much better article than the one in the Baltimore Sun. After reading the BS article, I was confused on why the teacher was being charged for murder because it provided no corroborating evidence to the accusation that he was involved. It made it sound like it was all a young girl’s fleeting fantasy, but now I see that the corroboration is coming from this “KS”. I am a little learly as the sex case has so many text messages from the teacher to the student, but he suddenly got smart and stopped texting other incriminating plans? I also want to see the girl charged as an adult. She’s 17 and tried to have someone killed, this isn’t a “minor’s” actions.
Other people have said shooting a parent in the head, dumping the body in a pond and then fleeing from the police are the actions of a minor…
Kharn,
We cannot bring that issue up – he was not in his right mind, he had the mind of a child in that case.
Hannah is going to come after you full-force for that comment.
As someone who went to school with both Ethan and his wife this is shocking. If these allegations are true I hope he spends quite some time in prison. I really feel for the family as this is horribly embarrassing and from what I can remember they were good people. It’s a shame. You never really know what people are capable of……