TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- The FBI said it uncovered a murder plot against an ex-prisoner by members of the Klu Klux Klan.
Officials said that 25-year-old Thomas Jordan Driver, 47-year-old David Elliot Moran and 42-year-old Charles Thomas Newcomb all plotted to have the prisoner killed after his release. According to the Associated Press, the men wanted the prisoner killed because they believed he was infected with HIV and hepatitis and he bit one of them during a fight.
According to an affidavit, the fake hit man showed the men a doctored photograph of the inmate who looked like he'd been fatally shot and recorded their jubilant reactions.
Driver, Moran and Newcomb each face one state count of conspiracy to commit murder.
Driver and Morgan are employees at the Florida Department of Corrections but the department is currently in the process of firing them. In an email statement the Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections Julie Jones said, "We are moving swiftly to terminate the employees arrested today and working closely with Office of the Attorney General to assist in their prosecution. Our Department has zero tolerance for racism or prejudice of any kind. The actions of these individuals are unacceptable and do not, in any way, represent the thousands of good, hardworking and honorable correctional officers employed at the Department of Corrections." Newcomb is a former DOC employee.
The three were also identified by law enforcement as members of the Traditional American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
We reached out to the KKK group for a statement about three of its members being arrested for plotting to kill a black prisoner.
The group sent this email as a response, "The Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan does not know all of the facts surrounding the recent arrest of alleged members in the State of Florida on conspiracy charges. However we at the TAK do not in any way condone, tolerate, or support any type of illegal activity in our organization and because of this we would stand by any of our members pending a decision by a court of law, not a decision of the court of media or public opinion."
On its website the group claims to be a Christian organization of "the Highest Class for White Christian Men of Intelligence and Character."
