EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP with files) - Former St. Louis Blues player Mike Danton pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder for hire in U.S. federal court Friday in a plot that unravelled when the would-be hit man turned out to be a police informant.
As part of the plea, Danton did not mention the name of the potential target. Prosecutors had previously accused Danton of plotting to kill his agent, David Frost.
Danton, who was to have been tried in September with co-defendant Katie Wolfmeyer and was scheduled for a pretrial hearing next week, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause a person to travel in interstate commerce to commit murder.
Danton, 23, and Wolfmeyer - a 19-year-old college student from the St. Louis suburb of Florissant - had faced identical murder-for-hire conspiracy charges, with Wolfmeyer accused of trying to hire the would-be killer of Frost.
The would-be killer - identified by the government for the first time in court Friday as Justin Jones, a Columbia, Ill., police dispatcher - eventually went to police.
As part of a deal with prosecutors, the U.S. government dropped a related charge of making a telephone call in connection with a murder-for-hire plot.
Sentencing was set for Oct. 22. Danton, a native of Brampton, Ont., could face seven to 10 years in prison and up to $250,000 US in fines.
''Obviously, this is what I think is a good result,'' Stephen Clark, the case's lead federal prosecutor, told reporters afterward. ''I think it's a fair deal.''
Danton, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, spoke little during the hearing and hung his head occasionally when U.S. district judge William Stiehl outlined the case against him. Danton replied to the judge's questions with a ''yes'' or ''no'' before declaring: ''I plead guilty.''
Federal prosecutors have agreed to let Danton serve his possible prison time in his native Canada, though Stiehl cautioned Danton that the deal may bar him from re-entering the United States.
Danton has been jailed since his arrest April 16 in San Jose, Calif., a day after the San Jose Sharks eliminated the Blues from the playoffs. The Blues released Danton on July 1. He's now an unrestricted free agent.
Danton's estranged family members, who go under the name of Jefferson, reacted to their son's plea by blaming Frost.
"I think he's covering up, hiding things for David Frost - that's what I think," Danton's father told CFTO news in Toronto.
"Dave Frost has ruined his life... He's ruined lots of other young men's lives... and until he's brought to justice, he'll continue to do it."
Jefferson and Frost have verbally sparred in the past, trading accusations.
"It's been very hard on the family. My wife's a total wreck. My youngest son... we've had him to the doctor. This is a brutal justice system where they let people like Dave Frost walk around," Jefferson said Friday.
Clark, the prosecutor, told Stiehl that Danton had promised to pay Jones $10,000 in the plot. Danton apparently told Jones that the person he wanted slain would be in the athlete's suburban St. Louis apartment and that $3,000 for Jones could be found in an unlocked safe there, Clark said.
Jones ultimately reported the plot to authorities, who secretly taped many of the conversations Danton later had with him and Wolfmeyer.
In one such call, Clark said, Danton told Jones that ''somebody was coming from Canada to kill (Danton)'' - and that that person could be found in Danton's apartment. Danton directed Jones to make the killing appear like a botched burglary, Clark said.
In another conversation - while Danton was with the Blues in California during the playoffs - Danton told Wolfmeyer by telephone as the plot supposedly was being hatched, ''I owe you guys so much,'' Clark said.
''Yeah, you do,'' Clark said Wolfmeyer replied.
Clark declined to say how Danton's guilty plea may affect the case against Wolfmeyer, still scheduled for trial here beginning Sept. 1.
Donald Groshong, a Wolfmeyer lawyer who attended Friday's hearing, said he hoped Danton's admission ''may lead the government to reconsider its position and do the honorable thing and dismiss its case'' against Wolfmeyer.
Wolfmeyer, who has pleaded not guilty, has been portrayed by her attorneys as a naive young woman simply smitten with an athlete who ultimately manipulated her.