Man pleads guilty to hiring hitman

STAUNTON – In the Stuarts Draft man’s head, if he could remove his ex-wife and her fiancée from the equation, he would get his children back. So he hired a hitman.

That’s how Assistant Attorney General Phil Figura explained the actions of Thomas Joseph Laguardia Sr. during a plea hearing Monday in Augusta County Circuit Court.

Laguardia, 60, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted capital murder for hire as part of a plea agreement. Each charge carries the possibility of a life sentence.

In February, authorities watched as Laguardia met the hitman in a Burger King parking lot in Verona to discuss payment for the murders of Kerry Egnor and her boyfriend, Frank Kemo, according to testimony. What Laguardia didn’t know eventually ensnared him: The hitman was an undercover officer working with the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office.

Tipped by an informant, investigators arranged for Laguardia to meet Sgt. Josh Sholes twice before local and federal officers arrested Laguardia on Feb. 4, according to testimony.

During parking-lot conversations with Sholes, Laguardia talked the murder price down to $400, with $200 to be paid before the murders, Sholes testified. The Stuarts Draft man paid in $20 bills and gave the officer an address and two license plate numbers. Sholes told him the murders would happen the following day.

“He looked at me and said, ‘Tomorrow? I’m impressed,’ ” Sholes testified.

Figura shook his head in court Monday as he recounted the exchange.

“The truly frightening thing about this was the address and [license] plate numbers he gave the hitman were wrong,” Figura told Judge Humes J. Franklin, Jr. “Had this gone through, two completely innocent people would have died.”

Figura said he contacted each victim about the plea agreement to ensure their satisfaction.

The victims wanted to make sure Laguardia had limited and supervised access to his finances. They didn’t want him to try and hire another hitman from prison, Figura said.

Prosecutors dropped two additional counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder and the defense requested a pre-sentencing report.

County records show Laguardia and Egnor separated in 2005 and divorced in 2006 after a 34-year marriage. Laguardia remains barred from contact with his son, his daughter, Egnor and Kemo. Egnor and her daughter work in the Augusta County courts system.