Soldier guilty in murder-for-hire plot

A U.S. soldier has been convicted in a murder-for-hire scheme in which prosecutors say he agreed to kill a man for undercover agents posing as drug cartel members.

A federal jury in Texas on Thursday found 29-year-old Samuel Walker, a soldier from Colorado Springs Colo., guilty of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.

An accomplice, 28-year-old Calvin Epps of Hopkins, S.C., was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana in the same plot. Both were also convicted of firearms charges.

Walker and Hopkins were the last of seven defendants charged in the case.

Prosecutors alleged Walker thought he was talking to a cartel boss when he agreed to kill a man who had stolen cocaine and recover the drugs. The cartel boss was really a Drug Enforcement Administration agent.