Hit Men Given 2-Year Prison Sentences : Courts: Cooperation with prosecutors earns less than maximum terms for 2 involved in murder-for-hire plot.

SANTA ANA —  A federal court judge on Monday sentenced two New Jersey men to two years in prison for their role in a murder-for-hire scheme organized by a reputed mobster.

John Caravaggio, 28, and Scott Douglass Smith, 24, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, were given a sentence “substantially” less than the five-year maximum because they cooperated with the government in its case against reputed Las Vegas mobster Richard J. Dota, 55, and South County businessman Julius F. Schill, the judge said.

In that case, prosecutors contended that the 58-year-old Schill paid Dota $21,000 to arrange the murder of his secretary’s fiance as part of a plan to make her his lover. Dota then hired a “hit crew” consisting of Caravaggio, Smith and a third man, Blake Tek Yoon, to kill the young woman’s boyfriend, they alleged.

But the murder contract carried out by Smith, Caravaggio and Yoon went awry Oct. 11, 1991, when Wilbur Constable, the man they beat with baseball bats and shot in the head in a secluded Irvine parking lot, survived the attack.

Despite the pretrial help and subsequent testimony of Caravaggio, Smith and Yoon, a conviction was won only against Dota. Schill was acquitted of all charges.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor accepted a recommendation by Assistant U.S. Atty. Wayne Gross that the two defendants be given a lighter sentence because of their assistance to the case.

Gross noted that the defendants had agreed to testify against Dota even though he was “a man they knew was able to order their execution.”

“They did the right thing,” he said.

Gross added that the government, in effect, had to work out a plea agreement with Smith and Caravaggio because it was in a position of needing “information from insiders” about the crime.

Taylor agreed, saying the defendants’ information appeared to help prosecutors “bring the case fully into light.”

The judge, however, noted that the crime was “a serious event” and it was only “a miracle of circumstances that a death did not occur in this case.”

Before Taylor issued his final sentence, Smith and Caravaggio asked to address the court. Wearing jail-issued white T-shirts and blue pants, they each read from a prepared statement and expressed remorse for the crime.

Both men asked for leniency and blamed the incident on Yoon, the triggerman of the “hit crew.”

As they had testified in the trial, Smith and Caravaggio said they were misled by Yoon into believing that the attack on Constable was only supposed to be a beating, not a murder. Each man was paid $500 for the attack. Yoon is scheduled to be sentenced in two months for his role in the crime.

“I have to live with the shame and guilt from what I have done,” Caravaggio told the judge. “(But) in my heart, I know that I am not a murderer.”

“I know I made a mistake,” Smith said. “I was lied to by Blake. . . . Time is running out to make good. Please don’t take that away from me.”

After listening to their pleas, Taylor handed down 24-month sentences. Because the defendants have been in custody since their arrest last November, they have about 14 months left to serve.

But the two could face additional time in prison if the Orange County district attorney decides to follow through with pending assault charges in state court in connection with the same crime.

After the hearing, attorneys for Smith and Caravaggio said their clients were “thankful” for the relatively light sentences.

The pair’s punishment was indeed light when compared to the one facing a Westminster man who appeared before Taylor five minutes after Smith and Caravaggio had left the courtroom. That man, who pleaded guilty to an unarmed robbery of a bank, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years.