Men arrested in murder for hire plot - Los Angeles Local News, Weather, and Traffic

Two men were arrested after police say they were traveling to Vermont in a murder for hire plot involving a man serving a life sentence for the 2000 killing of a 15-year-old girl in Barre, Vt.

New York state police say that the men were contracted to kill two people.

Events started unfolding last Tuesday.  The New Mexico state police warned local cops that two men from Albuquerque were on their way to the St. Albans area to kill two people.

US Custom agents at the Canadian border ran a check on the men as they entered the country.  One of them, Mark Staake, 41, was in violation of felony probation.

Staake, who had been recently released from a New Mexico prison, was taken into custody.

The second man, Tanner D. Ruane, 23, was allowed to go free.  But, New Mexico police had a warrant for Ruane for two counts of conspiracy to commit murder.

New York state troopers arrested Ruane in the Albany area the night after he stayed in a hotel.  He was being held in the Schenectady County Jail without bail.

Troopers say they found documents connected to the murder plot in Ruane's car, including the identities of the intended victims, their family members and their whereabouts.

Police say that Staake had befriended Dana Martin, 45, who is serving two life sentences for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl on October 25, 2000.

DeAndra Florucci was a high school sophomore who had left school grounds during the class day.  Martin admitted that he killed her and dumped her body under a bridge in Plainfield, Vt.

Police say that Martin may be involved in the disappearance of other victims throughout the United States.

They declined to release more information on Martin's connection with the two intended murder victims in the current case.

They say their investigation is continuing.