Left: The Miami Federal Detention Center where Anthony Brillante is being held (Google Maps). Right: Anthony Brillante (Florida International University Police).
A Florida man who was being held in a federal prison facing charges of cyber harassment has been found guilty of trying to have witnesses in his case — who were also members of his family — murdered. He also targeted the federal prosecutor who signed his indictment and an FBI special agent who worked the case.
Anthony Frederick Brillante II, 36, was originally charged with cyber harassment while he was a student at Florida International University. According to the U.S. Attorney”s Office for the Southern District of Florida, Brillante sent “tens of thousands of phone calls and text messages” to his cousin and her family who lived in New York, including her 12-year-old daughter. The messages, sent from “hundreds” of spoofed phone numbers, were explicitly violent threats to their lives that they received for a 15-month period in 2021 to 2022.
He was eventually found guilty of those charges, but before he went to trial, the same U.S. Attorney’s Office said that he tried to have those family members — and even more people involved in the case — murdered.
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In a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida posted on Wednesday, federal prosecutors announced that Brillante was found guilty of attempted murder of an employee of the United States, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice.
Law&Crime reviewed the indictment against Brillante, which outlined the steps he took while in custody at the Miami Federal Detention Center in the fall of 2023; his cyber harassment trial was scheduled to begin on Oct. 30, 2023. After learning that his cousin, her husband, and their daughter were going to be called as witnesses, Brillante spoke with an unnamed individual and asked that person to transfer $30,000 from their bank account to the account of a cooperating witness.
The cooperating witness was an “associate” of the person sharing a prison cell with Brillante. According to the indictment, Brillante told the individual that the money was to pay someone to kill those three relatives and two additional ones, a cousin and her husband who lived in Texas.
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On Oct. 29, 2023, an undercover FBI agent posed as a potential hitman and another associate of Brillante’s cellmate. During their recorded conversation, Brillante indicated that he wanted his five relatives as well as the federal prosecutor and an FBI special agent killed. He told the undercover agent that he already paid $30,000 for the hit.
When the undercover agent said it would cost Brillante another $10,000 to kill the two feds, Brillante agreed to pay the money. Over the next two days, Brillante had the first individual make two transfers of $20,000 to the cooperating witness.
Brillante was found guilty by a federal jury on July 11. He is scheduled to be sentenced for his latter charges on Oct. 1.
