Newlywed Man From New Mexico Dies in Wife's Arms After Serial Killer Targets Wrong Man

A man lost his life to a hired murderer who had come to kill someone else. The homeowners were left in shock when they confronted the stranger at their New Mexico residence.

Scott Pierce and Katherine Bailey bought a new home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they started their married life, Oxygen reported. Just six days after their wedding, the couple came face to face with a serial killer in their house.

On June 28, 2008, Bailey woke up in the early morning hours to her dogs barking, Oxygen reported. She walked down the hallway and saw a back door open, and a shadow standing with a "long", "pointy" thing directed at her.

Her first thought was that Pierce was messing with her. “I said, ‘Oh Scott, stop messing around,'” she recalled. “It didn’t make sense that it would be a stranger in my home pointing a shotgun at me, so it had to be Scott playing a trick.”

Bailey quickly realized this was not a joke as the intruder ordered her to get down, Oxygen reported.

"Your mind works very fast,"  Bailey explained. "He said, 'Get down on the ground,' so I did. And he said, 'Where’s Manny?," and I said, 'What? What did you say?' And he said, 'Where’s Manny?'"

Bailey couldn't understand why an unknown intruder was asking her about Manny, Oxygen reported. During this time Pierce entered the scene and immediately charged at the intruder.

"At that point, it was kind of a blur," Bailey said. "All I remember was him turning very fast, but I saw the bright flash of the gun and I think that kind of temporarily blinded me."

The intruder fled after the gunshot, Oxygen reported. Bailey was left with Pierce's bleeding body.

“I told him I loved him,” Bailey said. "I put my hands on his face and I told him I loved him. He had his hand up on his stomach and I noticed it fell, and I’m fairly certain he died right there."

Emergency responders came to the scene and rushed Pierce to the hospital, where he was declared dead.

Bailey told officers about the intruder demanding a man named Manny, who investigators later determined was the previous owner of the house the couple bought. 

Police then contacted Manny, who suspected Jason Skaggs, his coworker, of committing the crime, Oxygen reported. Skaggs, according to the outlet, suspected that Manny had allegedly slept with his wife.

Skaggs, who was staying at a campground with his wife aroudn the time of the murder, insisted he was innocent when questioned by police.

Detectives continued to interrogate Skaggs, and he eventually revealed that he hired Clifton Bloomfield, a career criminal who was out on probation, to hurt Manny, Oxygen reported.

Bloomfield was brought in for questioning and immediately confessed that when he went in to kill Manny, he was surprised to see two people who did not match his target's description.

"All I can remember thinking is, this isn't Manny," Bloomfield told detectives. "He was too big. And he didn’t stop coming at me." 

An Albuquerque crime lab were also able to link the hitman Bloomfield's DNA with evidence found in the murder of Tak and Pung Yi, Oxygen reported. The victims, a Korean couple, had been brutally murdered at their home on December 4, 2007.

To avoid the death penalty in connection with the Yis' double murder, Bloomfield, pleaded guilty to all  charges against him and agreed to a life sentence, Oxygen reported. He also admitted to killing two more victims in addition to the Yis and Pierce.

For Pierce's slaying, Skaggs received a 30-year prison sentence for second-degree murder, and aggravated burglary with a deadly weapon.