Businessman to Be Tried on Attempted Murder Charge

SANTA ANA —  A Los Angeles businessman accused of driving a hooded gunman from the shooting of an Irvine drug company executive 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 to 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 that D’Saachs was driving near the Irvine Spectrum the morning that the shooting took place there, but declined to say what his client was doing.

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

The gunman, still carrying the firearm, fled between two four-story office buildings and past Spectrum Bank, which was 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 van that drove by with its door open.

Prosecutors allege 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.