Chicago man found guilty of murder-for-hire scheme in Joliet

A jury found a Chicago man guilty of trying to solicit who he thought was a hit man in Joliet to kill his wife’s uncle in New Jersey.

On May 27, a jury found Venkatesh Bhogireddy, 43, guilty of five counts of soliciting his wife’s uncle’s murder on three days in 2019, including on Oct. 2, court records show. The jury found him not guilty of one count of the same offense on July 2, 2019.

The jury arrived at its verdict after a seven-day trial in federal court.

Bhogireddy is scheduled for sentencing Oct. 29.

Bhogireddy was arrested after he met with whom he believed was a hit man on Oct. 2, 2019, at La Mex, 3157 W. Jefferson St. in Joliet.

The man was actually an undercover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to a federal affidavit from ATF Special Agent Joseph Dynes.

Bhogireddy handed the presumed hit man a “folded wad” of $2,000 in cash so he would kill his wife’s uncle in New Jersey by pushing him in front of a subway train, Dynes’ affidavit said.

After Bhogireddy left La Mex, he was arrested in Bolingbrook, taken to the Will County jail and then sent to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.

Bhogireddy wanted his relative killed because he suspected his uncle-in-law was causing his wife to accuse him of “doing things” to their children, such as masturbating in front of them, Dynes said.

Dynes said that Bhogireddy also believed his wife was having an affair with his uncle.

The investigation of Bhogireddy began May 14, 2019, when ATF agents were contacted by a confidential source who had been arrested in 2017 by Will County Sheriff’s deputies on charges of attempted sexual contact with a minor, Dynes said.

The confidential source informed the agents that Bhogireddy asked him if he knew anyone who would kill “someone associated with his wife” for money, Dynes said.

The agents were able to get Bhogireddy to contact another agent posing as a hitman, and the two men first met June 6, 2019, at a warehouse in Joliet, Dynes said.

Bhogireddy would go on to meet with the undercover agent several more times until his final meeting with him at La Mex.