Mundelein man charged with trying to put out a hit on witness

A Lake County Jail inmate has been charged with trying to hire someone to kill a witness.

Jonathan Velasquez, 34, of Mundelein, was charged Thursday with solicitation for murder and was ordered held Friday on $1 million bail.

While jailed pending trial on a criminal sexual assault charge out of Mundelein, Velasquez tried to hire someone to kill someone expected to testify against him, according to the Lake County sheriff’s office’s gang task force, which said he arranged to pay more than $1,000 to someone he believed would carry out the hit. But the supposed hitman was an informant working with detectives, according to the sheriff’s office.