Juan-Carlos Cruz was the Food Network’s Calorie Commando. More recently, he allegedly hatched a plot to recruit homeless guys as commandos to kill his wife.
Santa Monica, Calif., police say Cruz was arrested and booked on suspicion of solicitation to commit murder. Cruz is currently being held on $5 million bail.
The homeless men say they were instructed to “cut [a] woman’s throat.”
According to one of the men, Little Dave, Cruz said he wanted someone to do “dirty deeds done dirt cheap.” He says Cruz told him he’d give him “a grand.”
Cruz then gave Little Dave a box which contained a box cutter, a disposable cell phone, gloves, a pocket watch and half of 10 $100 bills. Yup, torn in half.
Juan-Carlos Cruz: Calorie Commando. Really bad henchman.
Juan-Carlos promised to give him the other halves when the job was done, and Little Dave says Cruz showed him a picture of the other half of the money.
Little Dave says he then told his friend Shane, who called Cruz on the phone and discussed the plan. They got a third dude, named Big Dave, involved too.
Big Dave contacted Cruz, who met all three homeless men in Santa Monica. Cruz went over the plan, showed Big Dave a picture of the alleged female target.
The target was later identified as Cruz’s wife.
After being arrested for loitering, Big Dave blew the whistle on Cruz. Police got in touch with all three men and asked for their cooperation in busting Cruz.
The men called Cruz and asked to meet with him again. Big Dave was wired and a cop was nearby videotaping the meeting, which was used to nab Cruz.
Big Dave told Cruz he did not want to kill the woman in public, so Cruz suggested one of them wait in his apartment and strangle her when she walked in.
They discussed logistics, Cruz left, and the three homeless men continued to help police until Cruz was arrested on charges of solicitation to commit murder.
As for why Juan-Carlos Cruz allegedly wanted to kill his wife?
The men told cops Cruz said she received a family inheritance he wanted, but no such inheritance existed. Big Dave says Cruz said she put a hit on him first.