Sentenced · Monday, August 31, 2026
North Carolina man gets 188 months for Philadelphia-area murder-for-hire plot
The File desk · Aug 31, 2026, 10:05 PM UTC
Status
Confirmed. Guo was sentenced after a guilty plea. No one was killed.
Xin Guang Guo, 48, of Plymouth, N.C., was sentenced Aug. 24, 2026, in Philadelphia to 188 months in prison and three years of supervised release for trying to hire a killer to murder two people in the Philadelphia area. U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III imposed the sentence after Guo pleaded guilty in April to two counts of using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said ATF learned on Sept. 30, 2025, that Guo wanted his former business partner and that person’s partner killed, and that Guo agreed to pay $15,000 per killing. On Oct. 6, 2025, Guo gave $2,500 to an undercover ATF officer he believed was the hitman and asked for photographs of the killings before paying the rest. He was arrested after the meeting. Intended victims are Person-1 and Person-2. No one was harmed.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said on Aug. 24, 2026, that Xin Guang Guo, 48, of Plymouth, N.C., was sentenced that afternoon by U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III to 188 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Guo had pleaded guilty in April to two counts of using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire.
The office said ATF learned on Sept. 30, 2025, that Guo wanted his former business partner and that person’s partner killed — identified in court filings as Person-1 and Person-2 — and that he agreed to pay $15,000 for each murder. On Oct. 6, 2025, the office said, Guo gave $2,500 to an undercover ATF officer he believed was the hitman and asked for photographs of the killings before paying the rest. He was arrested after the meeting. No one was harmed.
An April 6, 2026, USAO release recorded the guilty plea before the same judge on the same two counts.
What is still unknown or disputed
- The criminal docket PDF was not fetched. The sentence is taken from the U.S. Attorney’s Office announcement.
Primary sources
Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.
Source 1
North Carolina Man Who Sought Murder-for-Hire Plot Sentenced to Over 15 Years in Prison
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania · August 24, 2026
Xin Guang Guo, 48, of Plymouth, North Carolina, was sentenced this afternoon to 188 months in prison and three years of supervised release by United States District Judge Harvey Bartle III for his effort to pay another individual $30,000 to kill two people residing in the Philadelphia area.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edpa/pr/north-carolina-man-who-sought-murder-hire-plot-sentenced-over-15-years-prison
Source 2
North Carolina Man Pleads Guilty to Murder-for-Hire Plot
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania · April 6, 2026
Xin Guang Guo, 48, of Plymouth, North Carolina, entered a plea of guilty today before United States District Judge Harvey Bartle III on two counts of using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edpa/pr/north-carolina-man-pleads-guilty-murder-hire-plot