VENTURA : Man Admits Plan to Kill Employer

A Ventura man faces a maximum sentence of almost 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to planning to kill his grocery store boss.

Jamer Singh, 25, is scheduled to be sentenced July 2 in Ventura County Superior Court. He pleaded guilty last week to three counts--solicitation to commit murder, robbery and possession of a machine gun--after being confronted with police undercover recordings.

“It is substantial,” said his attorney, Richard Hanawalt, about the prosecutor’s evidence against his client.

Singh, who was a clerk in a combination market and gas station on Harbor Boulevard, had been angered by perceived mistreatment by his boss, Hanawalt said.

A co-worker tipped police about the apparent plot and undercover investigators were assigned to the case. The meeting was covertly taped in February at a Ventura hotel when an undercover officer gave Singh a machine gun and a silencer.

Hanawalt said there were “six or more tapes” of conversation between Singh and undercover officers that convincingly demonstrated that “the plan to do in the market owner was unfortunately the plan evolved by Mr. Singh.”