What is the evidence sufficient to convict a defendant of conspiracy in the second degree for paying a government informant for a contract killing?

⁷ The agreement defendant made with MS here is strikingly similar to the defendant's conduct in People v. Washington, 8 N.Y.3d 565, 838 N.Y.S.2d 465, 869 N.E.2d 641 [2007], which was legally sufficient to support a conviction for conspiracy in the second degree. There, the inmate solicited and agreed to pay a government informant for the killing of a rival and engaged in overt acts in furtherance of that agreement, including providing the feigned confederate with a telephone number to contact the defendant's associates to arrange for the contract killing (see also Bongarzone, 69 N.Y.2d at 896, 515 N.Y.S.2d 227, 507 N.E.2d 1083 [evidence sufficient to find an overt act in support of a conviction for conspiracy to kill an eyewitness to the defendant's automobile accident, which resulted in two deaths, where the defendant provided payment to an undercover officer to kill the witness, provided a photograph of the intended victim, and made telephone calls to his mother and sister in furtherance of the plan]).