Oklahoma woman accused of seeking hit against Israeli ex-husband

Woman accused of seeking a stage magician to poison Israeli taxi-driver.

By ELIYAHU KAMISHER
Updated: JULY 5, 2017 03:26
Oklahoma storm (photo credit: AP)
Oklahoma storm
(photo credit: AP)
An Israeli woman living in Oklahoma has been arrested for allegedly seeking to hire an assassin through the Craigslist website to kill a taxi driver in Tel Aviv, apparently her ex-husband with whom she has been locked in a child custody battle.
According to a criminal complaint published by KOKH-TV Fox 25 News in Oklahoma City, Danielle Dana Layman, 37, sought someone to kill a driver who works for the Ashdod Mall Taxi Company, with a homemade poison. The complaint indicated that the taxi driver’s last name is Qasis, while previous reporting from 2014 showed that Layman was locked in a custody battle with her ex-husband, Shahar Abecassis.
The FBI stated that Layman was in the United States on a non-immigrant visa and had claimed on her visa application to be a former director of nursing for the Labor Ministry.
Layman, a resident of Ponca City, Oklahoma, posted an advert on Craigslist seeking an actor for a “production overseas,” the criminal complaint said. According to the post, the applicant needed to be bold and brave with a preference for those with experience as a magician or a casino dealer. “Some stunts may seem risky, although they are completely safe,” the post said.
Tinsley Keefe responded to the advertisement, Fox 25 reported, and a week later she met with Layman at a local coffee shop. At the meeting Layman allegedly told Keefe she was a Mossad agent and presented her with a Power-Point presentation detailing a plan to kill the taxi driver (who Layman allegedly claimed was an ISIS agent) by placing the homemade poison called ricin in his coffee. For her services, she would be paid $1,000 for expenses in Israel and $4,000 upon completing the task, the complaint alleges.
Layman also allegedly warned the woman that if she told anyone about the plan they would both be killed, the complaint stated.
According to Fox 25, the woman was told to tell airport security that the ricin was a religious relic to “ward off evil spirits.”
The plan was never carried out as Keefe called the police, alerting them of the suspected murder-for-hire plot, and on Friday FBI agents and the Joint Terrorism Task Force searched Layman’s home and found ingredients and tools for making the ricin poison.
Layman was subsequently arrested.
Layman’s attorney requested that the suspect be placed on house arrest since she is in a high-risk pregnancy, Fox 25 reported. She is in Logan County Jail near Oklahoma City.