Man Pleads Guilty to Role in Alleged Murder Conspiracy

The alleged leader of a “hit team” hired to kill a Mission Viejo man reversed his original plea to guilty Tuesday after striking an agreement with federal prosecutors.

Blake Tek Yoon, 27, of San Rafael, pleaded guilty to a charge of use and travel in interstate commerce with the intent to commit murder. He was accused of traveling between California and Nevada in September in order to arrange details of the murder of William Constable, 25, a Mission Viejo sales clerk.

In exchange for agreeing to cooperate with federal investigators, eight other counts against Yoon were dismissed, including conspiracy to commit murder for hire and the use of a firearm.

Yoon will be sentenced on June 15. He now faces a maximum term of 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and the restitution of the victim’s medical expenses.

Yoon was one of three men allegedly hired last August by reputed mobster Richard Dota, 55, of Las Vegas to kill Constable. Dota allegedly was acting at the request of Julius Schill, the owner of a Tustin-based vending machine company.

Schill, 58, wanted to pursue a relationship with Constable’s fiancee, a secretary in his office, and paid Dota $42,000 to set up the murder, prosecutors say. Dota initially paid Yoon $3,000 and promised him more money after the murder, according to prosecutors.

In early October, Constable was lured to a deserted business complex in Irvine and was assaulted by three men with baseball bats. Yoon then fired a bullet into the back of Constable’s head, according to court documents. Constable, however, survived the attack.

Schill, Dota and the other alleged assailants, John Caravaggio, 28, of Morristown, N.J., and Scott Douglas Smith, 23, of Denville, N.J., face trial on May 19.