L.A. CEO found guilty of hiring alleged drug dealer in failed plot to kill business rival

The chief executive of a Los Angeles medical marketing firm was found guilty Friday of hiring a drug dealer to kill a business rival.

David Phillips, the 36-year-old former head of NKP Medical Marketing, was found guilty in Los Angeles federal court of arranging the murder-for-hire plot, according to defense attorney, Glen Jonas.

“We respectfully disagree with the verdict,” said Jonas. The lawyer said Phillips would appeal.

The plot was disrupted by agents of Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans and Los Angeles. An alleged methamphetamine trafficker, who was the target of a separate drug investigation, was heard discussing a “hit” on a tapped telephone line late last year, court records show.

That phone call sparked an investigation that spanned from Louisiana to Southern California to track down the person trying to organize the killing. At one point, federal agents even staged a bloody murder scene, with the help of the would-be victim, to help ensnare Phillips.

After investigators heard the wiretapped comment about the hit, an undercover federal agent contacted the alleged drug trafficker in Los Angeles in February of this year, according to a criminal complaint. The pair met several times, and the alleged trafficker provided information about Phillips to authorities after his arrest in April.

The suspect told investigators that Phillips had given him $30,000 to launch a failed “marijuana venture” in early 2016, but when he could not repay his debt, Phillips offered to forgive the loan in exchange for carrying out the hit.

The would-be victim, who was identified in court only by the initials S.F., once helped Phillips run NKP Medical Marketing, according to the complaint. He left the business after they had a falling out in late 2014 or early 2015.

On the day Phillips was arrested earlier this year, he met the alleged drug dealer at NKP’s Los Angeles offices. Agents provided the alleged dealer with a staged photograph that showed the intended victim with what appeared to be bruises and a gunshot to the forehead, complete with phony blood splatter on the wall behind his head, according to the complaint.

Phillips “appeared nervous” while looking at the picture and his “hands were shaking,” according to the complaint. He was arrested a short time later.

Jonas, the defense attorney, has said Phillips did nothing wrong and dismissed prosecutors’ claims that the supposed target of the murder-for-hire plot was a business rival of his client.

“The purported victim is a disgruntled former employee,” Jonas told The Times earlier this year. “That’s it, and frankly, his importance to my client was minimal.”

Phillips ran the marketing company for nearly 10 years, according to public records. His brother took over as CEO in April, after Phillips was criminally charged.

Two other defendants, David Suiaunoa and Lucky Fua Iosua, were indicted in the murder-for-hire plot and were in custody in Louisiana.

Suiaunoa pleaded guilty to charges related to drug trafficking and the murder-for-hire plot in July, according to Anna Christman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in New Orleans. He is scheduled for sentencing next year. Iosua is scheduled to go on trial later this month, Christman said.

james.queally@latimes.com

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California.

UPDATES:

2:45 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information about the two defendants in Louisiana.

This article was originally published at 12:25 p.m.