A man who was accused of being behind a murder-for-hire scheme pleaded guilty on Friday.
Gregory Rouzer, currently an inmate at SCI Pine Grove, was charged in February for actons that happened between August of 2015 and January of 2016, when he was charged with trying to hire a hit man to kill Randy Walters. Rouzer had tried to kill Walters and Walters’ girlfriend Marian Wertz at their home in 2008. Walters was shot, but he managed to shoot Rouzer in the leg and Rouzer was caught a few days later. He was sentenced to 14 to 50 years in prison on attempted homicide and other charges. In 2009, while Rouzer was awaiting his first trial, he first tried to order a hit on Walters and Wertz from jail, giving an undercover informant posing as a hit man $1000 and drugs in exchange for performing the hit. Another 5-10 years was added to Rouzer’s sentence.
This guilty plea is for Rouzer’s most recent attempt to try and order a hit on Walters, utilizing his girlfriend at the time Laraine Patterson to make the contact. An undercover trooper using the name “Joanie Pepperoni” posed as the go-between for the hit man, and Patterson, working for Rouzer, gave the trooper a down payment of $1000 to do the job. For her part, Patterson was charged with solicitation for criminal homicide and conspiracy to criminal homicide. She is awaiting jury selection on February 21st.
Rouzer pleaded to a felony charge of conspiracy to aggravated assault, with charges of criminal solicitation for homicide and conspiracy to commit criminal homicide will not be prosecuted. He will be sentenced on April 24th and could face another 20 years in jail and a $25,000 fine.
