A Florida man has been found guilty of attempting to have multiple people, including his family members, a federal prosecutor, and an FBI agent, murdered while he was awaiting trial for cyber harassment charges.
Anthony Frederick Brillante II, 36, was already facing charges for cyber harassment when he took the drastic step of attempting to hire hitmen to kill key witnesses in his case.
The Cyber Harassment Case
Brillante’s criminal history began when he was a student at Florida International University. Between 2021 and 2022, Brillante sent tens of thousands of violent, harassing phone calls and text messages to his cousin, her family, and even her 12-year-old daughter.
The messages were sent from “hundreds” of spoofed phone numbers and contained explicit threats to their lives, continuing for a 15-month period. As a result, he was charged with cyber harassment, but the case soon escalated into an even darker plot.
The Murder-for-Hire Plot
Before the trial for his cyber harassment charges could even begin, Brillante attempted to orchestrate the murders of several people involved in his case.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, he targeted not only the family members who had been harassed but also the federal prosecutor who signed his indictment and an FBI special agent who worked on the case.
In the fall of 2023, while being held in the Miami Federal Detention Center, Brillante made a chilling plan to have his family members, as well as the two federal employees, murdered.
He attempted to transfer $30,000 through an associate to a witness he believed would carry out the killings. Brillante explicitly mentioned paying for the deaths of his relatives, along with the prosecutor and FBI agent.
Undercover Operation Exposes the Plot
In a daring operation, an undercover FBI agent posed as a hitman and recorded conversations with Brillante. During these exchanges, Brillante confirmed his plan to murder the witnesses and law enforcement officers involved in his case.
In one of the conversations, Brillante even agreed to pay an additional $10,000 to kill the two federal employees, bringing his total to $40,000.
The plot unraveled when Brillante made two separate transfers totaling $20,000, but the FBI’s undercover operation exposed the chilling extent of his actions.
Legal Consequences
On July 11, 2025, Brillante was found guilty by a federal jury of attempted murder of a federal employee, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, use of interstate commerce facilities in a murder-for-hire scheme, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice.
He now faces serious legal consequences for his actions, and his sentencing for these charges is scheduled for October 1, 2025.
Brillante’s case highlights the dangerous lengths some individuals are willing to go in an attempt to evade justice. With his plot foiled and his trial looming, Brillante’s future now looks grim as he faces the consequences of his violent and dangerous actions.
