Motive in Murder Attempt Is Termed ‘an Embarrassment’ : Crime: Assailants thought their victim was a mob figure, suspect says in jailhouse interview.

A man who is accused of pulling the trigger in a mob-style murder attempt on a Mission Viejo man said Wednesday that he was embarrassed when he learned what the motive was behind the contract to kill.

Blake Tek Yoon said he and his “crew” believed they were out to kill a mob figure last Oct. 11. But the victim turned out to be Wilbur Constable, a 25-year-old salesclerk and ex-Marine who authorities said merely stood in the way of a wealthy businessman’s romantic pursuits.

“I’m very upset with the reason that this thing was done,” Yoon said in a jailhouse interview with The Times. “We thought this Constable was some wise guy from Ohio. That’s what we were told.”

Yoon, 27, of San Rafael, said he would never have carried out the contract had he known the real reason. “It’s an embarrassment,” he said.

According to federal and local law enforcement officials, Yoon and two accomplices tried to kill Constable in an isolated area in Irvine. The three men, court documents said, lured Constable to the back of a building on the pretext of paying for hit-and-run damages to his car. They beat him with baseball bats, then Yoon shot him in the back of the head, leaving him for dead with a bullet lodged in his brain, according to court documents.

Miraculously, Constable survived the attack.

Yoon, who is being held in Orange County Jail on a charge of attempted murder, has been cooperating with law enforcement officials in their investigation of the attack, court documents said.

“I know I’m burning my bridges,” he said. “I don’t know how all of this will turn out.”

Yoon declined to say much about his background or the charges against him. However, he said he once owned a restaurant in West Hollywood, a limousine service and a flower import business. He also managed a boxer at one time, he said.

Yoon said he was unhappy with the FBI for releasing his photograph to the media.

“I’m disappointed,” he said, adding that he was moved away from the general jail population because of publicity surrounding the case. He declined to elaborate on what, if any, deal he had struck with authorities for his cooperation.

Federal and local authorities allege that the attempt on Constable’s life was financed by businessman Julius Frederick Schill, 57, of San Juan Capistrano, the owner of Tustin-based Auto Photo Systems Inc. The company produces and sells vending machines that dispense photos and business cards.

Authorities allege in court documents that Schill asked a reputed mobster in Las Vegas with connections to the Genovese crime family to kill Constable. Schill, court documents said, wanted to romance Constable’s fiancee, Cynthia Asher, a 24-year-old secretary in his office.

Schill paid the mobster, Richard Marion Dota, $50,000 to get Constable out of the way, according to court documents.

Dota, in turn, hired Yoon and his partners, John Caravaggio, 28, of Morristown, N.J., and Scott Douglas Smith, 23, of Denville, N.J., to carry out the contract on Constable, court documents said.

Yoon and his alleged accomplices were arrested in Orange County in November. Each is being held on $1 million bail.

Smith and Caravaggio declined to be interviewed.

Law enforcement sources said Wednesday that a friendship between Schill and Dota apparently developed over many months during visits Dota made to Schill’s company. The sources said Dota and his associates were attempting to get the company to approve sites in Las Vegas so machines could be installed.

The vending machines, some of which can bring in as much as $10,000 a month, make instant photographs and business cards.

According to one law enforcement source, some vending machine distribution networks have been a stronghold of organized crime, in part because they bring in large amounts of untraceable cash.

Before the attack on Constable, according to court documents, Dota met with Yoon at Grappa’s Restaurant in West Hollywood, where Dota handed Yoon an envelope containing $3,000. Yoon was given the physical description of Constable, his home address and where he worked. Dota told Yoon about a local automobile junkyard where Constable’s body could be placed in an old car and crushed, court documents said.

Asher told investigators that she observed several meetings between Dota and Schill at the company in the months before the attack on her fiance, according to court documents.

Court documents allege that in December, Schill approved 84 sites for his vending machines in Las Vegas for Dota without the usual verification and supporting documentation.

FBI agents said they believe the “ostensible business relationship” between Dota and Schill was “created primarily to disguise” Schill’s payments to Dota for the murder of Constable.

Both Schill and Dota were arrested Monday and were charged in federal court with conspiracy to commit murder. Schill is being held without bail in a federal jail in Los Angeles. Dota is being held without bail in Las Vegas.