A football player at a southern Colorado college is accused of hiring three men to kill his residence hall neighbor after the pair argued about hair left in their shared shower, according to the Fort Lewis College Police Department.
Jackson Thomas Keller, 19, was arrested on Jan. 29 in Durango on suspicion of soliciting a homicide and illegally carrying a weapon on college grounds, according to an arrest affidavit.
The student targeted by Keller told police that they played football together and had started “having issues” in recent weeks, police wrote in the affidavit. Their rooms were next to each other in Cooper Hall and shared an adjoining bathroom.
Keller started a fight with the student over leaving hair in the shower about a week before trying to arrange his death, police said in the arrest report. The targeted student started locking his door after that fight, so Keller could no longer access his dorm room from the shared bathroom.
On Jan. 28, the student was in his dorm room when he heard the knob on his bathroom door rattling like someone was trying to enter, according to the affidavit. The student told police this had been an ongoing issue and that he knew it was Keller trying to get in, so he went to confront Keller in his dorm room.
The student told police he argued with Keller and kicked over Keller’s TV, knocking it into a PlayStation. Keller then challenged him to a fight and the student retreated into the hall.
Keller never followed, but a friend of the targeted student told him that Keller was waiting in his dorm room and holding a pair of scissors behind his back, allegedly planning to stab the student if he came back in, according to the affidavit.
Keller later offered to give that friend $500 to “put a hat” on the victim. When the friend turned him down, he called a group of three men in Colorado Springs and offered it to them instead. They accepted.
The friend saw the men holding guns when Keller video-called them and watched Keller transfer the money on CashApp. As the group started to plan their route and timing to the college, the friend pretended to get a phone call and left the room to alert the targeted student of the planned attack.
The targeted student reported Keller to the college’s housing officials, who then alerted campus police.
Keller was released from the La Plata County Jail on a $50,000 cash or surety bail and is set to appear in court for a filing of charges hearing Feb. 23, according to court records.
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