Ex-priest Gets 60 Years for Murder-for-hire Plot

By Melissa Cutler
My Fox DFW
May 19, 2012

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/18559144/ex-priest-gets-60-years-for-murder-for-hire-plot

[with video]

DALLAS -

A former Catholic priest convicted in a murder-for-hire plot was sentenced to 60 years in prison late Friday afternoon.

John Fiala was convicted for trying to hire someone to kill a 16-year-old who accused him of sexual assault. The 53-year-old Garland resident was once a priest in the San Antonio area.

Prosecutors said he discussed the plot with a neighbor who turned him in. Then police set up an undercover sting operation where Fiala offered to pay a hit man $5,000.

Fiala's attorneys tried to argue that a neighbor was the one who hatched the scheme. But Fiala testified his neighbor had no motive.

While the sentence fell short of a life sentence, prosecutors are still calling it a victory.

Fiala also still faces the original sex abuse charges. The teenage victim accused him of sexually assaulting him at gunpoint in 2008.