Teen Accused of Soliciting Hitman to Kill High School Staff Member

A Florida teen was arrested late Thursday for allegedly trying to place a hit on a high school faculty member.

The Tampa Bay Times reports that Nicholas Robert Godfrey—an 18-year-old senior at Fivay High School—is accused of offering another student $100,000 for the staffer’s “head.” Godfrey is now facing charges of first degree solicitation to attempt murder. Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said the teen had solicited the hit via Instagram messages, some of which were read during a Friday press conference.

Godfrey allegedly wrote: “I need a guy who could kill someone … We have $100,000 for the victim’s heads … No joke, I need him eliminated as soon as possible.”

Nocco went on to say that the teen did not have any known problems with the targeted faculty member, who has not been publicly identified. Authorities also said Godfrey suggested the messages were jokes and that he had no intentions of actually harming the staffer. It’s unclear if Godfrey had the means to pay for the hit.

“It doesn’t matter if somebody says, ‘I was joking.’  It doesn’t matter what the intent was,” Nocco said. “When you do it and post it on social media, you committed that crime.”

The teen has since been released on $10,000 bond. Pasco County Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning told reporters Godfrey had not been expelled as of Friday afternoon; however, he intends to make that recommendation. 

“It ruined his life by a simple threat on social media,” Browning told NBC News. “I was elated that we had apprehended him but very saddened, very saddened by what this young man has just done to the rest of his life.”