TOWSON, Md. (AP) — Baltimore County Police say a man charged with killing his girlfriend tried to hire another inmate to hurt a possible witness in the case.

Forty-three-year-old Stephen Michael Cooke Jr. was charged last week with conspiracy to commit witness intimidation and conspiracy to commit first-degree assault.

Cooke was charged in 2012 with first-degree murder in the 2000 strangulation of 24-year-old Heidi Bernadzikowski. Police say Cooke entered into a murder-for-hire pact with two Colorado men online.

Thirty-four-year-old Alexander Bennett of Greeley, Colorado, was charged in 2012 with first-degree murder and 35-year-old Grant Lewis of Denver was charged with conspiracy to commit murder. All three have been jailed since their arrests.

Police say Cooke to hire another inmate at the Baltimore County Detention Center to harm Lewis to keep him from testifying.

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