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Target Testifies In Polk County Murder-For-Hire Trial

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 16, 2008

TAMPA - As Randy Nowak was meeting with an undercover agent he thought was a hit man, the Internal Revenue Service officer Nowak wanted dead went into hiding, according to evidence presented this morning in Nowak's trial.

Revenue officer Christine Brandt testified she met Nowak once after she was assigned to investigate a relatively routine matter involving employee withholding taxes for Nowak's Polk County construction business.

He stopped into the office without an appointment on April 23. "He was talkative, nice, compliant," Brandt testified. That was the last she saw of him.

On June 13, she mailed some summonses for Nowak to bring records, she said.

Ten days later, she said, she received a phone call that upended her life. She was told that Nowak was trying to have her killed.

That night, she and her husband and two children went to a hotel. The next day, her daughter went to stay with her boyfriend and her son went to stay with his grandmother. Brandt and her husband went to a hotel farther away where they stayed a few days before going on a previously scheduled cruise.

When they returned, they went to stay at a campground for a few weeks. A couple of times, they were allowed to return home, but only after law enforcement swept the house. They were allowed inside to take care of their business, she said, and then they had to leave.

She couldn't go to work at the IRS office in Lakeland, except one day when she went so law enforcement could take her picture.

The undercover agent who was posing as a hit man named "Reaper" testified he showed pictures of Brandt and someone else to Nowak and that Nowak identified Brandt as the woman he wanted killed.

The courtroom was locked, and Reaper's real name was not given in court to protect his identity. Jurors heard audio recordings of Nowak and Reaper discussing plans to kill Brandt. They saw video recordings, including one where Nowak handed over an envelope containing a $10,000 down payment and asked what it would cost to destroy the IRS building.

Reaper told jurors he did everything he could to convince Nowak he was a professional hit man. He changed cell phone numbers frequently and met Nowak in public places – always a different one.

He said Nowak never appeared hesitant about what he wanted done or suggested he might change his mind.

When he described for Nowak how he would make Brandt's body and car disappear, Nowak said, "OK. Cool," according to evidence presented in court.

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