Police: TV Chef Solicited Homeless in Murder Plot

Police: Former Food Network chef solicited Calif. homeless people to commit a murder

The Associated Press
SANTA MONICA, Calif.

California police say the former host of a Food Network show is accused of soliciting homeless people to commit a murder.

Santa Monica police Sgt. Jay Trisler says Juan-Carlos Cruz was arrested Thursday and booked on suspicion of solicitation to commit murder.

Cruz was the host of the Food Network program "Calorie Commando" in 2004 and has spoken about low-calorie cooking at health fairs.

Trisler says officers were contacted on May 7 by homeless individuals who were solicited by Cruz to kill someone. The people who were solicited then agreed to help police in the investigation.

Trisler says the intended victim has been notified.

Cruz is being held on $5 million bail.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures

He was also a contestant on the first National Body Challenge, and he had a short-lived show called "Weighing In" -- a sort of Biggest Loser/Last Ten Pounds Bootcamp hybrid. Something about him I never liked or trusted, but I surely never thought "murder-for-hire."

Innocent until proven guilty.

Yep, he was, Sheri. I watched it for a while too, but never cared for any of his recipe changes.

Is that the one where he'd have a few "real people" say what their favorite foods are and then he'd make a healthy version of it while they watched and then got to try it? If so, I definitely watched that show.

I watched the show a few times-wasn't a big fan but this story was a shock-wow, guess the next show he'll be on is Cops.

Jill

I have never seen "Calorie Commando", so I don't have an opinion on the show.

The news story just stuck me as being weird.

I thought about posting that, but didn't want to appear catty. I remember that some of us watched his show.