Man found guilty in dark-web murder-for-hire case
Beau Even Brigham.
–District Attorney Dan Dow announced that a San Luis Obispo County jury found 33-year-old Beau Evan Brigham guilty of soliciting the murder of his step-mother.
The case was initially brought to the attention of local law enforcement by CBS 48-Hours in May of 2018. At that time, 48-Hours provided the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office Bureau of Investigations with evidence of Brigham’s murder-for-hire plot. The information had been captured from the dark web by a concerned citizen residing within the United Kingdom. A joint investigation by the City of San Luis Obispo Police Department and District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigations confirmed that in April of 2018, Brigham had ordered the murder of his step-mother through a murder-for-hire website on the dark web, Cosa Nostra.
“Our office is committed to pursuing crime wherever it exists, even in the dark web that is like a darkened back-alley of the internet filled with predators and seedy shysters who are ready to sell contraband or defraud their anonymous customers,” said District Attorney Dan Dow. “This verdict tells criminals that you cannot hide in the shadows of the dark web. We are incredibly grateful to the jury for their hard work in this groundbreaking cyber-crime case.”
San Luis Obispo County’s Central Coast Cyber Forensic Laboratory was opened on March 1, 2017 to ensure that San Luis Obispo County had the necessary expertise and resources to solve the growing number of crimes that involve cyber evidence. Local law enforcement agency computer forensic investigators working at the CCCFL were instrumental in solving this case.
The jury reached their verdict after nearly three weeks of testimony and approximately seven hours of deliberation. Sentencing is scheduled for September 10, 2019, in Department 10 of the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court, the Honorable Jesse J. Marino presiding. Brigham faces a maximum of 9 years in state prison for his conviction.
The prosecution was the result of a joint investigation by the City of San Luis Obispo Police Department and San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office Bureau of Investigations and was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Michael S. Frye of the District Attorney’s Public Integrity Division.
