Justin Bieber: Two men accused in plot to murder pop star

Justin Bieber: Two men accused in plot to murder pop star


In an email to the Star, Melissa Victor, vice president of media and artist relations at Island Def Jam Music Group, said: “We take every precaution to protect and insure the safety of Justin and his fans.”


Police say 41-year-old Mark Staake (LEFT) and his 23-year-old nephew Tanner Ruane (RIGHT) were part of a murder-for-hire plot to mutilate and kill Canadian pop star Justin Bieber.


WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS GRAPHIC DETAILS

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary when teen pop star Justin Bieber played two sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov. 28 and 29.

There were thousands of screaming girls, and Bieber seemed especially pumped to be performing at what is widely considered the world’s most prestigious entertainment venue. In the 10 concerts witnessed by a Star writer on Bieber’s Believe tour, a bra flying onto the stage during an encore at the second Garden show was the only thing unusual that night.

But behind the scenes, there was something both sinister and bizarre going on, though it is not known whether Bieber or his people knew of it.

A police affidavit alleges that two prison inmates and a nephew were hatching a plot to murder Bieber and his director of security while the singer was in New York for those shows.

Details of the grisly plan — which involved strangling two other victims with a paisley tie and then castrating them — were revealed Wednesday in an affidavit for arrest obtained by New Mexico State Police.

But the plot may have been thwarted by a missed highway exit and a pair of recorded phone calls between an inmate and one of the accused.

According to the affidavit, the plan was hatched behind bars after inmate Dana Martin was transferred from a Florida prison to the Southern New Mexico Corrections Facility in April.

Martin, 45, serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Vermont, was reportedly obsessed with Bieber. He had written him letters and even had a tattoo of the singer on his leg.

He allegedly recruited Mark Aaron Staake, 41, a fellow inmate at the time, after Staake noticed the tattoo on his leg. The plan was to kill four people in two states, with Bieber as the main target.

Oddly, the details were spilled on Nov. 20, when Martin asked to speak to police, telling them Staake (who had been released on probation on Oct. 22) and his nephew, Tanner Ruane, 23, had been planning to commit the first two murders, neither of them Bieber. New Mexico police declined to identify those intended victims.

In his interview with police, Martin described how the first two killings were to be carried out: strangulation with a paisley neck tie, followed by castration with Fiskars “Durasharp” brand garden clippers. The affidavit said there was a bounty of $2,500 on each testicle.

“Martin stated that a paisley tie needed to be used because that was what he (Mr. Martin) had used previously,” the affidavit reads.

Martin is serving consecutive life sentences for murders committed in 2000. The strangulation murder of the 15-year-old girl was a “case of jealousy,” police told The Associated Press.

In his police interview, Martin said that in addition to the two Vermont slayings, there would be two more targets. The main one was identified in the affidavit as J.B., who “has a measure of fame.”

Lt. Robert McDonald of the New Mexico State Police told the Star that “J.B.” was Bieber. However, investigators from New Mexico State Police have yet to make an official statement.

The affidavit describes Martin as “a very good manipulator,” who, “as part of his ruse,” convinced Staake he had access to large sums of money and a multimillion-dollar historic home where Staake and Ruane could hide out.

He also allegedly told Staake he had connections to Chinese gangs in New York, who had “sanctioned” the murders.

Martin told police he had been in contact with Staake since his release, and that Staake was to be in New York City in late November.

McDonald declined to speculate on why Martin revealed the plot to police when he did, but a pair of phone conversations on Nov. 19 hint at a plot unravelling.

The plan, according to the affidavit, called for two murders in Vermont, followed by two in New York. But the would-be assassins missed an exit in Vermont and were headed toward Canada on Nov. 19 in a 1983 BMW. When they spoke with a U.S. border agent at the Highgate Springs crossing, Staake was arrested on an outstanding New Mexico warrant.

That same day, Ruane phoned Martin in a call, recorded by the prison, telling him of Staake’s arrest. “Mr. Ruane did not want to ‘move it forward’ without Mr. Staake,” reads the affidavit, referring to the two Vermont killings.

Ruane then made his way south, phoning Martin again from a truck stop in Rotterdam, N.Y. The focus of that call was on Victims 3 (Bieber) and 4.

In the recorded conversation, Ruane tells Martin that Staake was going to “handle the whole putting down of the ‘dogs’ and I (Mr. Ruane) was going to go ‘snip, snip.’”

Martin went to police the next day and Ruane was arrested Nov. 26 by New York State Police, who had been on the lookout for the BMW.

New Mexico State Police are working to get Staake and Ruane back to that state. “Paperwork is in the process to get them extradited,” said McDonald.

The question now is could the alleged hit men have got close enough to Bieber to carry out the abduction and gruesome attack?

The pop star employs an imposing security detail. Chief among them are security director Moshe Benabou, a former Israeli soldier, and Dustin Folkes, a celebrity bodyguard based in Los Angeles. They are never far from him. Nor is tour manager Kenny Hamilton, who formerly served as Bieber’s bodyguard.

“We take every precaution to protect and ensure the safety of Justin and his fans,” Melissa Victor, vice-president of media and artist relations for Island Def Jam Music Group, told the Star in an email.

These bodyguards are obsessively protective of Bieber when it comes to paparazzi and sometimes even well-meaning fans.

Given the number of teenage girls who follow Bieber and stake out his hotels, his security detail is vigilant. He was the target last year of an allegation that he fathered a child with an obsessed fan after a brief encounter in a backstage bathroom. Bieber supplied DNA to prove he was not the father.