After a fellow inmate allegedly threatened to kill Ghislaine Maxwell for money, Maxwell’s lawyers are arguing for a prison sentence significantly less than the recommended 20 years.
Maxwell, known as the accomplice of infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, is due for sentencing on June 28. She was found guilty in December on five of six charges of sexually abusing and trafficking minor girls.
A female inmate told three other prisoners that she was planning on murdering the high-profile sex offender, according to Newsweek.
Maxwell is currently imprisoned at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The inmate said that “an additional 20 years’ incarceration would be worth the money she’d receive for murdering” Maxwell, according to the lawyers.
Their court filing said that the inmate “planned to strangle her in her sleep,” Newsweek reported.
“This incident reflects the brutal reality that there are numerous prison inmates who would not hesitate to kill Ms. Maxwell — whether for money, fame, or simple ‘street cred,’” it said.
The prisoner who allegedly threatened Maxwell was relocated to a special housing unit away from the other inmates.
Maxwell has remained in the general prison population since her guilty verdict in December. She was held in private detention before the trial.
Should Maxwell receive the longest possible sentence?
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Maxwell described poor living conditions in prison, including an open sewer in her cell and frequent visits from a rat. She also said prison guards watched her in the shower. The interview was published weeks before her trial began last year.
Because of the alleged threat and harsh prison treatment, Maxwell’s lawyers have asked the judge for a considerably lighter sentence.
According to a Wednesday report from the Daily Mail, they requested that Maxwell serve a mere four years and three months in jail.
“Ms. Maxwell has already experienced [a] hard time during detention under conditions far more onerous and punitive than any experienced by a typical pretrial detainee, and she is preparing to spend significantly more time behind bars,” the court filing said, according to Newsweek.
Her lawyers claimed that Maxwell’s “life has been ruined,” suggesting she was only Epstein’s pawn.
They also pointed to a “traumatic childhood” and an “overbearing, narcissistic, and demanding father” as grounds for their sentencing request.
“It made her vulnerable to Epstein, whom she met right after her father’s death,” their filing read. “It is the biggest mistake she made in her life and one that she has not and never will repeat.”
In August 2019, Epstein was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, New York. His death was ruled a suicide.
