VENTURA, CA - District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today that David Kenneth Beech (DOB 8/8/1959), of Simi Valley, has been charged with four counts of solicitation to commit murder while in custody at the Ventura County Pre-trial Detention Facility awaiting trial on multiple charges of lewd and lascivious acts against a child under the age of 14 and possession of child pornography.

Detectives discovered that in October 2017, Beech began soliciting other inmates to murder the two victims in his case as well as one of the victim’s mother and her friend. Ultimately, in December 2017, Beech offered an undercover officer posing as the “hitman” $10,000 to have those individuals murdered. The solicitation to commit murder counts were added to the original counts of lewd and lascivious acts against a child and possession of pornography, which Beech had been charged with in January 2015.

Beech faces over 60 years to life in the prison if convicted of the charges.