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Man Gets Probation For Rattlesnake Plot

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Jan 23, 2008 5:33 am US/Mountain

Man Gets Probation For Rattlesnake Plot

GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) ― A man who plotted to kill a poker tour operator by putting his feet in a box full of rattlesnakes was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation.

Herbert Paul Beck, 57, was accused of coming up with the deadly plan because he said a man owed him $60,000. Beck and another man, Christopher Steelman, were arrested by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation last August. Both men pleaded guilty to extortion.

Steelman will be sentenced next month.

Investigators said the rattlestakes-as-hitmen scheme was meant to kill Matthew Sowash, owner of the Amateur Poker Tour in Wheat Ridge. Sowash contacted state investigators after getting threatening e-mails.

Beck told investigators after his arrest he had invested $36,000 in Sowash's company and that he was owed $60,000 after interest accrued. Beck was prohibited from gambling as part of the conditions of his probation.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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