[US] Federal Guard Rudkin gets 15 years for plot to kill Christine & sex with inmate

..."Rudkin indicated that he did not want his son to be at home at the time of the killing and that the murder should look like a robbery"...

DANBURY: EX-ORRECTIONAL OFFICER SENTENCED TO 15 YEARS Hartford Courant
January 16, 2009
[Excerpts] A former correctional officer was sentenced Thursday in federal court in New Haven to 15 years in prison for having sex with an inmate and planning to have his wife killed, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Michael E. Rudkin, 39, was sentenced to 10 years for use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire and 15 years for sexual abuse of a ward. The sentences are running concurrently. Rudkin worked at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury. He pleaded guilty to those charges in August... [Full article here]

PRISON GUARD FROM BREWSTER GETS 15 YEARS FOR AFFAIR WITH INMATE, PLOT AGAINST WIFE The Journal News
By Timothy O'Connor
January 16, 2009
[Excerpts] ...Rudkin promised to pay $5,000 to the inmate, who was not identified, to help carry out the killing of his wife, Christine. Rudkin gave the inmate a floor plan of their home, his wife's work schedule and the hours his young son would be at school... In a letter he wrote to the sentencing judge, Ellen Bree Burns, Rudkin said he was trapped in a loveless marriage that was marked by infidelity and heavy financial burdens. "The last six months of our marriage was the worst," he wrote. "There was no passion or affection from Christine to me. She wouldn't hug me, barely even talk to me." They slept in separate rooms, he wrote. But federal prosecutors said Rudkin was motivated by money. They said he told the inmate to hold off on arranging the hit until he had re-instated a life insurance policy on his wife... The inmate was to have a relative kill Rudkin's wife. "He wrote 'Kill my wife' on a Post-It note and handed it" to the inmate, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah P. Karwan wrote in court papers. "Rudkin indicated that he did not want his son to be at home at the time of the killing and that the murder should look like a robbery," Karwan wrote. Federal authorities learned of the plot from the inmate after she tested positive for semen. Rudkin admitted he had received oral sex from the inmate in November 2007. He said he thought she had gotten rid of the evidence, but she instead kept it in a locker at the work station where Rudkin supervised her. In his letter, Rudkin pleaded for leniency, asking for a sentence below the low end of the guideline range of 151 to 188 months. He said he wanted to be part of his son's life. The boy is now six years old. He and his wife are divorcing and his house is in foreclosure, according to his court papers. He admitted the relationship with the inmate and writing the notes to her, but he denied he ever wanted to go through with the plot. "I would die for my wife and my son"... [Full article here]

FORMER DANBURY GUARD TO BE SENTENCED FOR MURDER-FOR-HIRE ATTEMPT Brewster man could get 15 years in murder plot By John Pirro
Staff Writer
01/15/2009
[Excerpts] ...Today in U.S. District Court in New Haven, Judge Ellen Bree Burns will decide whether Rudkin should serve the 12 1/2-to-15-year prison sentence sought by the government or a more lenient term Rudkin said will give him a chance to be a father to his 6-year-old son. "I want to tell him about life. I want to answer all his questions . . . I am asking for a small sentence where I can do things for my son and with my son," Rudkin said in a 53-page handwritten letter to the judge... [Full article here]