Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut,today announced that James Erik Godiksen, 54, of Clinton, was has been charged by criminal complaint with murder for hire.

As alleged in the complaint, the ATF received information that Godiksen was seeking a person who would be willing to kill his former wife. Between September 10 and September 14, Godiksen and an ATF special agent acting in an undercover capacity spoke multiple times by phone. During these conversations, Godiksen offered to pay the undercover agent $5,000 to murder his "ex-wife," and provided the agent with a physical description of his former wife, her phone number, her home address, her place of work and the route she typically drove to work. He also told the undercover agent how he would like his former wife to be murdered. Godiksen offered the undercover agent additional money if he encountered his former wife's current boyfriend and killed him, too.

Godiksen was arrested on September 14 after he met with the undercover agent and provided him with a "down payment" of $80, some of which was to be used to purchase a knife.

Godiksen appeared yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Holly B. Fitzsimmons in New Haven and was ordered detained.

The charge of murder for hire carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.

U.S. Attorney Daly stressed that a complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This matter is being investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Clinton Police Department and Connecticut Department of Correction. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Kale.