A man who was offered $7,000 to kill another man's ex-girlfriend has spoken out about his regrets.
In a letter sent into Prison Writers, a website that allows inmates to voice their opinions through open letters, Justin Welch told why he is in jail.
He wrote: "I'm changing and making better choices now. I can't fix my past, but I can change who I will be. I must change so my kids and grandkids will have something to do with me.
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"I have 44 years to life in Wisconsin DOC.
"Arkansas agreed to not charge me if I got sentenced to anything over 30 years to life Wisconsin. And I did just that in Wisconsin.
"California has 25 to life on me but I'm sure the statute of limitations has ran out [of] their time limits by now, so I will not see that also.
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"So I have got lucky, one could say."
When he was 28, Welch was living in California, when he was hired by a man named Darren Wold to fly to Wisconsin - he was promised $7,000. He stabbed Smith in her home on 1 October and was sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of parole until he is 70.
He goes on to say he knows he will "most likely die in prison", but he knows he did it to himself.
Welch continued: "I killed people for nothing more than money, and now that I'm older I see why that is so sick."
He went on to say he knows everyone who commits crimes must pay the price - including the man who almost killed his 17-year-old daughter, but that 'it is what it is'.
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"Not only did it cut me deep, I don't think I will ever be able to understand what could make me do all the s*** I did when I was younger.
"I'm mentally f***ed up over my actions. The lady I killed in Wisconsin was a good, hardworking mother. Her name was Kim Smith and she worked for the county in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
"It's been over ten years and I still feel like a piece of s***. I feel so bad for her son Jackson. He was three years old at the time, the same age as my younger daughter Celeste.
"So now he lost his mother because I killed her. The whole Smith family lost a good kind mother, daughter, sister and more, because I wasn't thinking clearly. Man it's so sad and I don't care who reads this, I feel so bad for doing that."
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He goes on to talk about hitmen and how they are portrayed in films, adding: "Trust me if I could take it back I would..."
Welch adds that he finds it hard to live with what he did, saying: "You can't forget, you can't move on, you can only live in the past forever if you ever do evil s*** like I did.
"Prison is nothing compared to the past I have to deal with in my mind. Some guys in here might not care what they have done to others, but I do, and I just want to somehow make things a little better for others in their lives."
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/WSIN 12