‘Lying eyes’ hitman faces extradition back to US

A WOULD-BE Los Angeles hitman, who was hired by Sharon Collins to kill her lover and his two sons as part of the infamous “lying eyes” case, faces extradition back to the US for his involvement in another killer-for-hire plot.

Egyptian-born Essam Eid had been hired on the internet by mother-of-two Sharon Collins, who used the alias “lying eyes” to find a hitman to kill her partner, PJ Howard, and his two sons, Robert and Niall, in 2006.

The 55-year-old was sentenced to six years in prison for demanding €100,000 from PJ Howard’s son in exchange for not killing him, his brother and their father.

Now the High Court has been told that Eid is being sought by authorities in the US for conspiracy with his ex-partner to extort money from a woman and intent to extort money with a threat to kill in 2006.

The incidents are alleged to have happened in September of that year in Los Angeles.

Marissa Mark, 28, from Allentown in Pennsylvania is alleged to have hired Eid through his then website www.hitmanforhire.com to kill her former partner’s new girlfriend, Anne Royston for $37,000 (€26,000).

Ms Mark is also accused of paying $19,000 (€13,400) deposit with three stolen credit cards through the payment website PayPal.

However, after the website refused to transfer the money, Eid is alleged to have travelled to Los Angeles anyway where he informed Ms Royston of Ms Mark’s plan.

Eid then offered to kill Ms Mark for Ms Royston if the latter could match the original fee.

Eid is alleged to have told Ms Royston that he could not go through with the killing as she reminded him of his own daughter. Ms Royston was given a week to gather the money, but instead called the police. This led to the FBI placing a wire-tap on a call between Eid and Ms Royston.

During the call, Eid is alleged to have told Ms Royston not to worry about a hit being placed on her.

“Only 700 people in the world work as hit men, and my father Michael Luciano, is boss over all of them. If any of them got a contact on you, my father would know, and therefore, so would you,” he allegedly said.

The day after the call, Eid and his wife Theresa Engle are alleged to have flown to Ireland to demand one of PJ Howard’s sons pay €100,000 in exchange for not killing him, his brother and their father.

Eid, who is due for release on Monday, will reappear before the court next Wednesday. He was arrested by extradition gardaí at the Criminal Courts of Justice just before the short hearing.

Eid replied “no comment” when asked if he knew what the extradition was about.

There was no application for bail and Eid was remanded in custody.

Tale of intrigue

- IT was a seven-week trial full of deception and intrigue which gripped the nation.

During the case, it emerged that Sharon Collins hired Egyptian-born Essam Eid on the internet to kill her partner PJ Howard and his two sons, Robert and Niall, in 2006. Ms Collins used the alias “lying eyes” when hiring Eid as the would-be hitman.

The 55-year-old was sentenced to six years in prison in 2008 for demanding €100,000 from Mr Howard’s son in exchange for not killing him, his brother and their father. The former poker dealer later lost an appeal against the length of his jail term.

For her part in the plot, Sharon Collins was sentenced to six years for conspiracy to murder and six years for soliciting a man to kill the three.

The conspiracy conviction was later overturned on the grounds that Collins could not logically conspire to kill someone on her own. She is still awaiting the outcome of her appeal for soliciting Eid to kill the three men

The trial had heard Collins made contact with Eid — who called himself Tony Luciano — through his Hitmanforhire.com website using the email [e-mail].

The hitman and his ex-partner then flew to Ireland to kill PJ Howard and his two sons for $90,000 (€63,725).

However, the elaborate plot backfired and the couple were arrested when Eid landed in the south-west of the country and tried to blackmail PJ Howard’s son Robert to call off the hit.