South Korean man accused of plotting to kill 14 people connected to his 2019 attack on 13-year-old Indiana girl

A South Korean man is facing prison time after he attacked a teenager at an Indiana music camp in 2019 and recently attempted to put hits on 14 people associated with the case, authorities said.

In July, Dongwook "Mikey" Ko, 19, pleaded guilty to the felony charge of criminal confinement while armed with a deadly weapon for cutting the 13-year-old girl with a knife in 2019 during violin camp at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, the Herald-Times reported.

According to the outlet, the victim told police Ko lured her from a practice room by telling her a teacher wanted to speak with her, and he then held a pocket knife to her throat and attempted to strangle her. The girl screamed, fought Ko and suffered multiple cuts during the incident.

“More than a dozen knife wounds to her body represent a crime worthy of significant incarceration,” said Nina Barringer, the victim’s mother.

Ko was recently sentenced to serve eight years of home confinement followed by two years of probation, WBIW reported. The outlet noted Ko lived with his mother in Greenwood and was in the United States on a student visa.

According to a probable cause affidavit, in November, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took Ko into custody, and while he was awaiting deportation at the Clay County Jail, he allegedly devised a plot to have 14 people associated with the 2019 case murdered, including the teenage victim, her parents, prosecutors, defense witnesses and others.

Ko allegedly had his mother put money into his 39-year-old cellmate’s commissary account, and he offered to cover the prisoner's $2,500 bail as well as pay him $20,000 to carry out the hits, the affidavit states.

The cellmate was working with authorities when he called who he claimed was an uncle but was actually an undercover detective. During the call, court records show, Ko allegedly told the purported uncle the order in which he wanted the murders carried out and how they were to be done.

Ko’s is expected to be charged with new criminal counts for the alleged plot, and he could face eight years behind bars in connection to the home confinement charges stemming from the attack on the teenage girl two years ago, according to WBIW.