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Huntington Beach man pleads guilty in foiled plot to have his former sister-in-law killed

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A Huntington Beach man from a well-known surfing family pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony charges stemming from allegations that he tried to arrange the killing of his former sister-in-law for $12,000 in 2015.

Joseph Jordan Taylor, 32, pleaded guilty in Orange County Superior Court to one count of solicitation to commit murder and one count of attempted murder, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Taylor faces a maximum of 23 years in prison at his sentencing hearing March 27, according to the district attorney’s office.

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Taylor’s father is John Taylor, who was part of the “Hole in the Wall gang” that was inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame in Huntington Beach in 2011.

Huntington Beach police Det. Trent Tunstall testified during a 2016 preliminary hearing in the case that one of Joseph Taylor’s friends approached authorities in May 2015 to report that Taylor had given him $5,000 to arrange the slaying of his former sister-in-law.

Two undercover detectives posing as hit men met with Taylor in the parking lot at the Westminster Mall. Taylor told them the target was “his brother’s ex” and that she should be killed at her home after she dropped off her children at school, Tunstall testified.

Taylor agreed to pay $12,000 for the hit and was arrested after he gave the undercover officers a $2,000 cash down payment, with the understanding that he would pay more once she was killed, authorities said.

Los Angeles Times staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN

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