Department of Justice
For Immediate Release
Two Indicted for Murder for Hire of Franklin Man
BOWLING GREEN, KY. – A federal grand jury returned an indictment against Freddy Manuel Gonzalez and Xavior Caine Posey for the murder of Brian Russell on December 30, 2020, in Franklin, Kentucky, announced Acting United States Attorney Michael A. Bennett.
As alleged in the Criminal Complaint filed in the case, over the course of 2020, Freddy Manuel Gonzalez, and Brian Russell both dated Russell’s ex-wife. She ultimately broke up with Gonzalez in mid-December 2020. Russell had told co-workers that Gonzalez had once threatened him with a gun.
In the early morning on December 30, 2020, Franklin Police responded to a shots-fired complaint at Russell’s home and found that Russell had been shot three times. Russell died later that day.
Gonzalez and Posey were co-workers. The Criminal Complaint alleges that December 29 and December 30 text messages between Gonzalez and Posey discuss the murder, and that Gonzalez offered to pay Posey to commit the murder.
The federal grand jury sitting in Bowling Green returned a one count indictment against both Gonzalez and Posey on May 20, 2021, charging them with a violation of 18 United States Code, Section 1958, Murder for Hire. Gonzalez and Posey are both now in federal custody.
If convicted at trial, the maximum sentence is death and the minimum sentence is life in prison, and there is a maximum $250,000 fine.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Madison Sewell and David Weiser. The investigation has been led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Franklin Police Department. The Warren County Sheriff’s Office, the Logan County Sheriff’s Office, the Muhlenberg County Sheriff’s Office, the South Central Kentucky Drug Task Force, the Warren County Drug Task Force, the Kentucky State Police, the Russellville Police Department, the Bowling Green Police Department and the Simpson County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office also participated in the investigation.
The indictment of a person by a grand jury is an accusation only and that person is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
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