Florida mom accused of hiring hitman to avenge teenage son's murder prison sentence

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PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - A child's birthday party went south in 2022 after a 14-year-old fatally stabbed a 19-year-old during a fight. Now, at 16, he's staring down the barrel of a 15-year prison sentence. What's more, his mother was busted this week for allegedly trying to seek revenge on those she thinks got her son locked up.

Josefina Cardona-Cardona, 43, was arrested Monday and charged with two counts of premeditated first-degree murder with a firearm and two counts of criminal solicitation after an alleged murder-for-hire plot to kill two people she believes are responsible for sending her son to prison, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

Her son, Manuel Marcos Cardona, now 16, was sentenced to 15 years in February after he was found guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of a 19-year-old in June 2022. He began his sentence at the Suwannee Correctional Institution on March 1, state records show.

On that day in 2022, Cardona and his parents showed up uninvited to a birthday party for a 5-year-old, according to the arrest affidavit. Their families reportedly live in the same village in Guatemala. At the party, Cardona's father allegedly hit a woman in the face with a beer bottle during an argument, sparking a fight between a handful of people.

A teenager who was trying to break up that fight was stabbed in the chest by Cardona with a pocket knife, the affidavit said, citing multiple witnesses. After the stabbing, Cardona's parents allegedly continued to beat up the teen. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died from his injuries the following day.

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Fast-forward to April, when deputies learned that Cardona-Cardona was allegedly looking to hire someone to kill two people who she believes are responsible for her son's prison sentence. She wound up "hiring" an undercover agent on the advice of a criminal informant, who said he'd carry out the hit for $4,000 apiece, an arrest affidavit said. Deputies were able to identify Cardona-Cardona by her phone number.

Throughout their conversations, Cardona-Cardona, who went by the name "Maria," named the two people she wanted dead, the affidavit said. Only one of those people has a name similar to a witness listed in the arrest affidavit for her son.

"It was explained that her son had attended a party, where the party's hosts conspired against her son, which resulted in him being sent to prison," the affidavit said of Cardona-Cardona's alleged reasoning for wanting to hire a hitman.

Cardona-Cardona and the undercover agent met a few times at various locations, including outside both target's houses, and at each meeting, they would discuss payment and the circumstances of the murders-for-hire. At one point, the undercover agent suggested they could make their death seem accidental or like a robbery, but Cardona-Cardona declined.

"'Maria' requested that the undercover agent ‘shoot’ (the victim) in the body so it can be painful, where (the victim) could think about it, because a mother shouldn't be without her son," the affidavit said.

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Cardona-Cardona said she would reach out to family in Guatemala to send her money to help pay for the murders-for-hire, the affidavit said. She said she was only able to get half the money for one of the hits, and put up a gold chain valued at $100 as collateral.

She was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on Monday, where she remains held on $550,000 bond. She appeared in court for a first-appearance hearing on Tuesday morning, and is due back in 30 days and again toward the end of June for an initial case conference, court records show.