Parents tried to pay hitman $600 to kill their daughter's boyfriend

The parents of a young Texas woman who attempted to hire a hit man to kill her boyfriend will serve a combined term of 39 years behind bars.

Christina and Jeffrey Peyton both pleaded guilty to murder solicitation following a police sting and were sentenced this week, People reports.

The couple offered to pay a man $396 to kill their daughter's partner while she was at the cinema, a Texas court room heard. The man recorded the conversation and tipped off police.

"I want him gone", Mrs Peyton apparently told the man. "Not out-of-town gone. I want him dead gone."

An undercover officer then posed as a hit man to meet with the Peytons, and they offered him a $396 deposit and a further $264 payment when the contract killing was complete.

The sting was complete when the cop showed the pair staged photos of the boyfriend — who was unharmed and had agreed to be part of the police investigation — pretending to be dead. They then paid the remaining $200, and were arrested.

Neither the daughter nor the boyfriend have been named.