NEW STANTON, Pa. — A Greensburg man is behind bars after police say he attempted to pay another person to kill his sister.
However, police say the person being paid for the alleged murder-for-hire was an undercover detective, and he was set up thanks to an informant.
Peter Cute was arrested Friday in the New Stanton Eat n’ Park parking lot on West Byers Avenue.
Neighbors who lived next to Cute told Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek that they’re stunned.
“I’ve known the guy for years and [he’s been a] great person for all I’ve ever known of him,” said one neighbor who wished to remain anonymous. “Very helpful, great neighbor. Yeah, that’s very shocking. Sounds very out of character.”
According to police – Cute wanted to kill his sister because of a proposed change to his family’s estate.
In court documents, police say Cute was talking to a man and said his sister wanted to take him off of all property and money that belonged to his family’s estate.
Cute allegedly asked that man – who police have identified as an informant - if they knew of anyone who would be “willing to kill his sister and eliminate this problem.”
The informant went to police, and an undercover North Huntingdon detective met with Cute in the Eat n’ Park parking lot.
Investigators said Cute told the undercover detective he would pay him to kill his sister. He was then arrested by county detectives and sheriff’s deputies.
“I just saw them all together earlier in the week last week, and everything seemed fine,” Cute’s neighbor added. “That’s very surprising.”
That neighbor said he’s relieved no one was hurt and that police took the information from the informant seriously.
“It’s great that that happened,” he said of the set-up. “That’s absolutely wild that anybody would ever want to resort to something like that to solve any sort of issue in life, so it’s excellent that they stopped something like that from happening.”
Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek knocked at the door of Cute’s home, where neighbors said he lived with his mom. No one came to the door.
Cute is being held in the Westmoreland County Prison on a $250,000 bond. He’s due back in court on May 1.
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