Man convicted of murder-for-hire conspiracy

Erik Collins, 44, faces up to 20 years in prison for separately asking two District men to kill his live-in boyfriend, 22-year-old Lorenzo Boone. He was arrested in September, after one of the men solicited for the murder contacted police.

Collins was previously convicted in 1999 of voluntary manslaughter for fatally stabbing another boyfriend 12 times. He was released in 2005 and is on probation until 2010.

During the weeklong trial, prosecutors played audiotape of Collins purchasing insurance in Boone’s name, while making himself the primary beneficiary. Collins intended to pay Boone’s killer with money from the policy, one of those solicited to perform the murder said.

When Collins asked 33-year-old Zjamal Butler to kill Boone, Butler went to the Metropolitan Police Department — which initiated a sting operation. Butler began recording his phone calls with Collins, and arranged for him to buy a gun from an undercover officer posing as a drug dealer named “Mike-Mike.”

“Maybe I should just strangle this dude out,” Collins told Butler on a recorded phone call played in court. He said he was concerned that the dealer was with law enforcement.

Butler said he arranged with Collins to meet the victim at their shared home in Silver Spring and “blow his head off.”

The other witness, a 43-year-old man, is currently in prison for five misdemeanor convictions. His name is being withheld to protect his safety.

He testified that Collins asked him to buy a gun and kill a man in North Carolina, where Boone was living temporarily.

“He was trying to make [Boone] think everything’s OK ... but the whole time he had intentions of me going down there and killing him,” the witness said.

Defense attorney Warren Gorman, who called only Collins’ brother to the stand, said his client wanted the gun to commit suicide. Collins had told his brother that he had suicidal thoughts.

Gorman said Collins planned to appeal the case after sentencing in August.