NEW YORK—Murder-for-hire allegations are central to a New York trial starting this week for a San Francisco man charged with running an online black market where drugs were sold as easily as books and electronics.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest overruled defense objections in recent weeks as she concluded prosecutors could introduce evidence about six murder plots into Ross William Ulbricht’s trial. Prospective jurors have filled out questionnaires and formal jury selection starts Tuesday when potential jurors will be questioned orally.
Prosecutors say Ulbricht ran an underground website known as Silk Road, where hundreds of kilograms of cocaine, heroin, and other drugs were sold to over 100,000 customers. Ulbricht has pleaded not guilty and is disputing that he operated online under a “Dread Pirate Roberts” alias, an apparent reference to a swashbuckling character in the 1987 comedy “The Princess Bride.”
The government maintains that Ulbricht attempted to protect his operation by asking others to kill those who posed a threat to his business.
“To be sure, the evidence is prejudicial to Ulbricht, and it does inject an element of violence into the case,” Forrest wrote in an opinion letting the evidence be shown to jurors. “However, the prejudicial effect is reduced by the government’s stipulation that no actual murders were carried out.”
San Francisco Man Faces NY Trial Tuesday in ‘Silk Road’ Case
Murder-for-hire allegations are central to a New York trial starting this week for a San Francisco man charged with running an online black market where drugs were sold as easily as books and electronics.
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He was charged in Manhattan with conspiring to commit narcotics trafficking.
