UPDATE (6/30/2023): Trevor Dahl was sentenced to 37 years after pleading guilty to attempted murder.
UPDATE (06/12/2023): The Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office said that Trevor Dahl pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two counts of attempted murder for his involvement in the Nov. 14, 2022, road rage shooting in Noblesville and the Nov. 17, 2022, road rage shooting in Fishers. Dahl’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Aug. 31.
——————————————–
HAMILTON COUNTY, Ind. — A man awaiting trial for a Fishers road rage shooting tried to hire a hitman to kill two witnesses and stop them from taking the stand, court documents filed on Friday in Hamilton County alleged.
“Can this be done by March 13th? I have trial that week, I can’t have them take the stand,” read a letter reportedly written in February by Trevor Dahl, 25, of Noblesville. Investigators said it was written behind bars while Dahl was waiting for an attempted murder trial in connection to a fit of road rage that happened back in November of 2022.
A confidential informant gave police two handwritten letters that Dahl instructed him to give to a hitman, a probable cause affidavit stated. The letters included descriptions of a female witness and a juvenile witness, as well as where they lived and worked. Dahl reportedly offered his 2004 Acura TSX as payment.
According to the affidavit, Dahl was then given instructions to send another letter with code words for the names of the victims and a fake name for the hitman. Police said he was later seen on jail surveillance video dropping off a letter in his cell block’s outgoing mailbox.
When investigators got the letter, court documents indicate they saw that Dahl had referred to the witnesses as “bathroom renovation” and “bedroom renovation.”
Investigators said Dahl also spoke to a detective posing as the fake hitman “Jimmy Dalehart” over the phone several times. Dahl had told “Dalehart” he would talk to his parents about putting the keys in his Acura parked outside of their home, so it could be towed. Police said Dahl’s parents refused to do so, however.
“Dahl becomes very upset with his parents and tells them that them are messing things up for him, and that they don’t understand,” read the probable cause affidavit about a recorded phone conversation with Dahl and his parents.
According to court documents, Dahl then created a bill of sale for the car that jail staff (who were tipped off by investigators) helped type up and notarize.
During one of the last phone calls between Dahl and the undercover detective, Dahl reportedly agreed the Acura was worth $2,000 and that he would pay an additional $3,000 for both of the hits, saying “it would be easier to go ahead and gut it all and not have anything” about the female witness.
When referring to the juvenile witness, otherwise known as the “bathroom renovation,” court documents show Dahl said, “We don’t want anything left of the bathroom for sure.”
On March 23, investigators confronted Dahl about the hitman plot. He reportedly denied knowing anyone named “Jimmy Dalehart” but confirmed his handwriting was on a letter addressed to “Dalehart.” He did not respond when asked about the notarized bill of sale.
Dahl was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder, a level 2 Felony. The latest court records show the jury trial on his original charge of attempted murder was cancelled, likely because the two cases will be consolidated into one.