Biofem Suspect Ordered to Trial

A Los Angeles businessman accused of helping a hooded gunman flee after the shooting of an Irvine drug company executive in February must stand trial on attempted murder charges, a judge ruled Monday.

During a 2 1/2-hour preliminary hearing, prosecutors tried to show that Dino D’Saachs spent at least three months helping plan the attempted murder of James Patrick Riley, chief executive of Biofem Inc. Riley was wounded in the face as he arrived for work the morning of Feb. 28.

Handcuffed and wearing leg shackles, D’Saachs remained silent Monday but has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. His attorney, Henry Salcido, said D’Saachs was driving near Irvine Spectrum the morning that the shooting took place there but declined to say what his client was doing.

Testimony from four Irvine detectives on the botched hit, which set off a chain of bizarre events across Orange County, offered a scene that mixed the horror of the shooting with an almost-slapstick escape plan.

The unidentified gunman, clad in black, fired a pistol from close range at Riley as the Biofem executive left his car. The bullet ricocheted off Riley’s cheekbone and smashed through a nearby office window, sending an employee scrambling backward as shards of glass showered around his feet.

The gunman, still carrying the firearm, then fled between two four-story office buildings and past Spectrum Bank, filled with astonished employees.

The assailant stopped in an empty parking space and, as the bank staff looked on, waited for as long as 15 seconds before diving into a passing van that drove by with its door open.

Prosecutors alleged that the van, a gray Ford Aerostar, belonged to D’Saachs.

Police later discovered a vehicle of the same description at a Los Angeles home, Irvine Police Investigator Tracy Jacobson testified. The home’s owner told detectives that D’Saachs had asked him to paint it red, Jacobson testified. The homeowner told detectives he had painted the same car gray--from its original red--three months earlier, she testified.

Detectives testified that they searched D’Saachs’ home and tax consulting business and found a deed to Riley’s home, a how-to book on assassination and photographs of Riley and the Irvine Spectrum complex.

One investigator testified that an acquaintance of D’Saachs told police that D’Saachs showed him the same photographs about three months before the shooting.

The crime has perplexed detectives still hunting for the unknown gunman and has triggered a series of bizarre events. Last month, police evacuated more than 200 Irvine residents as police dug up the yard of Riley’s business partner, Dr. Larry C. Ford.

FBI officials and police pulled a cache of illegal weapons and explosives from the biochemist’s home and found “suspicious materials” they believe might be hazardous.

Ford, a suspect in the attempted murder, committed suicide a day after police searched his home. The Orange County Grand Jury is investigating possible biological and chemical toxins in Ford’s possession, according to court documents.