Man accused of trying to hire white supremacists to kill black neighbour: '$500 and he’s a ghost’

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A man has been accused of attempting to hire a hit man through a white supremacist group to murder his black neighbour.

Brandon Cory Lecroy, from South Carolina, was arrested in April after he contacted the white supremacist group to say he needed help to kill his neighbour, authorities say, in federal court documents.

The next day an undercover FBI agent in Virginia spoke with Mr Lecroy – who allegedly offered payment for the job.

“Five-hundred-dollars and he’s a ghost,” Mr Lecroy told the agent during the recorded phone conversation, according to the court document.

In the phone call, the 25-year-old white man made a request "to put a 'flaming cross' in the front yard and hang his neighbour from a tree," the affidavit says.

He also sent a text message to the agent which included a picture of the neighbour who was only identified in court documents as “FJ".

According to the affidavit, in a phone call two days later Mr Lecroy reaffirmed the agreement and gave the undercover agent "further intelligence on when to best ... commit the murder as well as plans to take over the victim's property”.

Mr Lecroy then met the undercover agent in Greenwood, South Carolina, on 9 April and discussed "future targets” and gave the agent "a $100 cash down payment with acknowledgement that this payment was for the murder of his neighbour," the affidavit says.

Mr Lecroy was then said to have been arrested the same day.

A day later a magistrate judge ordered a psychiatric or psychological evaluation for Mr Lecroy to determine whether he is competent to stand trial.

On Tuesday, a grand jury indicted Mr Lecroy on federal charges of soliciting someone to commit a violent crime and using interstate commerce facilities – in this instance a mobile phone – in the alleged scheme, the US Attorney's Office in South Carolina said.

Prosecutors said if Mr Lecroy were to be convicted on all charges, he could get up to 10 years in prison and be fined up to $250,000 (£184,30).