Killer: 'I was caught up in the Bieber Fever'

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - It was hatched in a New Mexico prison, a plot to kill pop-sensation Justin Bieber .  KRQE News 13 has obtained recordings of the prison phone calls between a convicted killer – obsessed with the star – and the men he hired to pull of the murder.

The prison phone calls were recorded at the State Penitentiary in Las Cruces between convicted killer Dana Martin and wannabe hit man, Tanner Ruane.

“He was going to handle the whole put-down of the dog and then I was going to go, snip snip,” Ruane is heard.

Last year the two men, along with Ruane’s uncle, Mark Staake were charged with plotting to kill and castrate four men, including Bieber and his bodyguard.

Martin met Staake in the State Penitentiary, where he was serving a life sentence for the 2000 rape and murder of a teenage girl in Vermont.

Police say in November Staake and Ruane drove to Vermont to kill two of Martin’s old acquaintances, but Staake made a wrong turn into a Canadian border crossing.  He was arrested after agents checked his ID and discovered Staake, who was a parolee at the time, wasn’t supposed to leave New Mexico.

Now Ruane was on his own.

“F*** due, it pisses me off so bad brother.  I wanted this s*** to go down so bad.  S*** I was ready, we were there last night dude,” Ruane tells Martin during the phone call made from prison later that day.

Ruane goes on to tell Martin they went to the home of one of the targets, he says a 9-year-old girl answered the door and said her father wasn’t there. 

Police say the men refer to their targets as dogs.

“He’s set on taking care of, going ahead and adopting these dogs,” Ruane says.

“And castrating them?” Martin asks.

“Yes sir, S*** I was going to do that, that was all me,” Ruane responds.

Martin goes on to ask for details.

“We went and we bought, you know, the f***ing hedge clippers, the hand hedge clippers,” Ruane says.

“You got to be kidding me,” Martin responds.

“Hell yeah, dude, that was all me.  I was going to get down and dirty,” Ruane goes on.  “I told him  you are going to give me five large for each one I get.”

Martin makes sure they men were going to use paisley ties to strangle the victims, something officials say is the killers’ calling card.

“I told him it had to be a paisley tie because that’s what I used on my… you know what paisley pattern is?”  Martin asks.

Ruane says he doesn’t want to go alone to kill Bieber in New York City, where the pop star was set to play at Madison Square Garden.

The next day Martin calls Ruane again to tell him why he wants Bieber murdered and mutilated.

“I was all caught up in the Bieber fever,” Martin says.

Martin says when Bieber’s Blockbuster movie came out in 2011 he got a prison tattoo.

“It says Justin Bieber, it says ‘Never say Never 16’ and it says February 11, 2011 and it has a portrait of Bieber on the back of my calf,” Martin tells Ruane.

But things turned sour when Martin learned that the star had got a tattoo with the name of his next album.

“You know what you little piece of s***, you know what?  It was me first.  It was my idea first,” Martin said.

Ruane was arrested the day of the last phone call after Martin contacted police to tell them about his plot to kill Bieber. Investigators believe Martin confessed because he wanted publicity for the plot, even though it fell apart.

Martin, Staake and Ruane are each charged in the murder-for-hire plot.

As for payment, all that’s known at this time is Staake and Ruane expected to collect $5,000 for each set of testicles they collected.