Woman charged with hiring hit man to kill four witnesses in her court case including boy, 9

Bernadette Beans, 20, faces almost 50 criminal counts

She first landed in jail on 47 counts stemming from a May 2013 kidnapping and standoff

Ms Beanes then tried to hire a prison guard to kill four witnesses against her - including a young boy



Tough sledding ahead: Bernadette bean faces almost 50 criminal counts

A Phoenix woman already facing more than 40 charges – including first-degree murder – for her involvement in a 2013 kidnapping and standoff reportedly tried to have the witnesses killed.

Bernadette Beanes, 20, has been in jail since the May incident made infamous when a SWAT vehicle actually plowed through the home she was barricaded inside, is accused of trying to hire a prison guard to kill four witnesses – including a nine-year-old child.

The troubled woman offered $20,000 to an undercover officer pretending to be a hit man invited to the jail by the guard to make the deaths look like an accident, according to CBS 5.

Ms Beanes was in jail because she helped then-boyfriend Israel Celis, 32, tie a woman up and sexually assault her in a hotel before kidnapping her three-year-old son, four other women, another man and two additional children, according to AZ Central.

The ensuing standoff produced images burned into the memory of millions across the country – a massive armored SWAT vehicle barreling through the front of a Phoenix home multiple times to try to end the 12-hour hostage situation.

Mr Celis committed suicide as cops closed in on the room he was holed up in with a woman and the nine-year-old boy – Ms Beanes is charged with first-degree murder because he died in a felony she’s accused of participating in, according to KPHO.

Multiple law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Marshal’s Service, brought the deadly standoff to a dramatic finish, according to AZ Central.

First thought a victim: Ms Beanes was initially wheeled out of the home and treated like a victim

Smash!: Dust can be seen pouring from the spot where the armored truck rammed into the home where hostage were being held last year

If at first you don't succeed: The armored truck then slammed into a second part of the house

Massive presence: Snipers were even laid across a neighboring roof

Ms Beanes was notably wheeled out of the home on a stretcher and depicted on early television reports as one of the victims. It took officials less than 24 hours to piece together what had really happened and arrest her.

She was charged with 38 counts of aggravated assault, eight counts of kidnapping and first-degree murder.

News of her trying to hire a hitman is the latest chapter in one of the more bizarre criminal cases in Phoenix in recent memory – and one of her victims doesn’t even blame her.

Safe at last: The nine-year-old boy targeted by Ms Beane's murder-for-hire plot (then eight-years-old) was shown being taken from the scene by his mother

All fixed up now: The home smashed up by the SWAT vehicle was quickly fixed up

‘She seemed like a confused 19-year-old girl that got misled by the wrong bad boy,’ the victim who declined to be identified told CBS 5.

When asked if facing her in court would do him any good, the man said no, ‘I don’t think she really knew what was going on when it happened.’

Authorities believe she certainly knew what she was doing when she reportedly tried to order four hits on witnesses to the standoff.