Owner of vape shops in Missouri arrested in murder-for-hire plot

OKLAHOMA CITY – A man who is co-owner of Vape Shops in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma has been charged by complaint with hiring someone to commit murder, according to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester.

According to an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant filed in federal court Thursday, Vernon Wayne Brock, 69, of Alva, OK., hired a Kansas resident to commit a murder in Oklahoma City. The individual from Kansas is alleged to have contacted the FBI and cooperated in the investigation.

The affidavit states that Brock and the individual from Kansas are partners in 17 vape shops in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma and that Brock was upset with a former vape shop employee who refused to continue a sexual relationship with him. Brock allegedly wanted the individual from Kansas to arrange the murder of the former employee’s boyfriend in Oklahoma City in exchange for $5,000.

According to the affidavit, Brock identified the boyfriend by sending a picture to the individual from Kansas and confirming “that’s the guy we want dead.” The affidavit includes several alleged quotes by Brock from recorded conversations between Brock and the individual from Kansas, including:

“Are they going to thump her around a little bit? And do him? Cause that’s what I wanted.”
“I’d rather do him, thump her and I mean thump her hard. And tell her if she says one word to the cops about anything there will be someone come back to get her . . . .”
“The main thing is for them to throw the scent off of everything. . . . What they want to say to him is, . . . you didn’t pay us for our drugs or something like that, and you owe us a million dollars, then pop, before he has anything to say either way.”

FBI agents arrested Brock on the afternoon of April 3, with the assistance of the Woods County Sheriff’s Office, after Brock delivered a $5,000 check to the individual from Kansas at a café in Harper, Kansas. Brock appeared Thursday afternoon for an initial appearance before United States Magistrate Judge Shon T. Erwin.

If found guilty of murder-for-hire, Brock faces a potential penalty of ten years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and three years of supervised release.