Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 19, 1990 TAG: 9007190445
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Surgery to relieve Alexandria Lebon's carpal tunnel syndrome went well. She didn't have to spend the night in the hospital.
Instead, she spent the night in jail.
Lebon, 44, is accused of conspiring with her boyfriend, a private investigator in Miami, to kill a former boyfriend in order to collect on a $100,000 insurance policy.
The killing was never committed, but Lebon was arrested by federal agents Wednesday at the hospital's outpatient surgery unit after the agents learned she had scheduled the operation in Roanoke.
Lebon, who checked into the hospital under the name Alexandria Shoop, gave hospital officials a Roanoke address.
She is accused of plotting the death of Raymond O'Bran in telephone conversations with Donald Plourde, who was arrested in Miami on Tuesday.
Lebon, who raises parrots as a hobby, could serve 10 years in prison if convicted.
An affidavit filed in Miami on Wednesday provided the following allegations leading to Lebon's arrest:
On June 14, Jack Kassewitz, an FBI informant and Plourde's partner in an investigation firm, told agents Plourde had approached him and said a group had hired him to commit a murder. Kassewitz said Plourde had searched him for recording devices before the conversation began.
According to Kassewitz, Plourde said $30,000 was being offered for the killing and he would be willing to split the money if a hit man could be found. Plourde also said the intended victim was to be killed at the gas station where he worked.
After assuring Plourde he would try to find a hit man, Kassewitz contacted the FBI instead.
On June 20, Kassewitz met again with Plourde and an undercover FBI agent acting as a hit man.
The affidavit quoted Plourde as saying, "The job has to be a total whack; a wounding or paralysis will not be sufficient."
The agent requested that Plourde provide a photo of the victim and maps of the area where the hit was to take place. An agreement was reached with Plourde for the killing to be committed. Plourde was to pay $15,000 for the hit, the affidavit said.
Plourde described the victim to Kassewitz and the agent as a heavy-equipment operator who lived with his 20-year-old daughter in the Washington, D.C., area.
On June 29, Plourde provided Kassewitz with detailed information on the victim and gave him a photograph with the notation "hair much longer now, full beard" on the back. He once again emphasized that the people who hired him were having trouble raising money, the affidavit said.
Based on that description, the FBI located O'Bran, who was working at a gas station near Dulles Airport.
On July 10, they told him he was the target of a murder-for-hire scheme aimed at getting his insurance policy. O'Bran told authorities he had two $100,000 life insurance policies, one on his daughter and the other on Lebon.
He told agents he had been romantically involved with the woman last year and they had planned to buy a house together. He said they each had bought a $100,000 policy naming each other as the beneficiary. Those policies were still in force.
Last Friday, a federal grand jury subpoenaed Lebon's telephone records, which indicated two telephone calls had been made to Plourde on June 30. The telephone was disconnected a day later.
Tuesday, a search warrant was executed on Plourde's home in Hialeah, Fla., where authorities found photographs of O'Bran and maps of the area where O'Bran worked. They also found 36 assorted pistols and rifle, most of which were loaded.
Plourde was arrested Tuesday by FBI agent and gave a complete statement of his involvement in the scheme, the affidavit said.
On Tuesday, while in FBI custody, Plourde received another telephone call from Lebon.
She said she couldn't afford the hit, but she would kill O'Bran with "ice," a synthetic drug she could buy in the Washington, D.C., area for $1,000.
by CNB