O.C. Businessman Denies Plot to Kill Secretary’s Fiance

An Orange County businessman denied Wednesday that he plotted to kill his secretary’s fiance, but tearfully admitted that he had an affair with the woman, describing her as an “expensive toy.”

“I guess I was reacting like some males--it was nice to have your ego stroked a little bit,” said Julius F. Schill, 58, about his affair with his 24-year-old secretary, Cynthia Asher.

The testimony in U.S. District Court marked the first time that Schill has publicly defended himself against charges that he paid a reputed Las Vegas mobster $21,000 to kill Asher’s fiance so he could pursue a romance with her.

“The whole idea is so personally repugnant to me that I can’t even conceive of such a situation,” Schill testified.

The San Juan Capistrano man cried as he told the jury in a trembling voice that he spent as much as $10,000 on gifts for Asher in exchange for sex. As he testified, his wife, who also appeared to be on the verge of tears, sat in the courtroom and tended to stare at the floor.

The prosecution alleges that Schill was “so desperate” to have an affair with Asher that he paid co-defendant Richard M. Dota, 55, to have her fiance, Wilbur Constable, 26, killed.

Dota, who allegedly has ties to the Genovese organized crime family, then arranged for three hoodlums to carry out the murder in a secluded Irvine parking lot on Oct. 11, 1991, prosecutors have alleged. Although Constable was beaten with baseball bats and shot in the head, he survived.

Both Schill and Dota have pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and murder for hire.

On Wednesday, Schill’s testimony sharply rebutted statements made by Asher earlier in the trial that she refused her boss’ sexual advances, even when he promised to buy her such gifts as a horse farm, a condominium and a car.

Schill, former president of Tustin-based Auto Photo Systems, said that he and Asher started having a sexual relationship in March, 1990, when she approached him and asked if she could accompany him on shopping trip to a Nordstrom department store. She said they could shop for a while and then go out for a few drinks, Schill testified.

“It was clear” that he would buy her gifts and then go to a nearby hotel with her for sex, Schill said. “That’s how it started.”

He said that after they went shopping and were at the Irvine Hilton and Towers, he asked Asher: “Are you all right with this?” Her answer, he said, was: “ ‘No problem.’ ”

“Did you and Ms. Asher then have sexual intercourse?” asked Schill’s attorney, Allan H. Stokke.

“Yes,” replied Schill, his voice cracking with emotion.

As the relationship progressed, Schill continued to shower Asher with gifts in exchange for sex, he said. He even gave her his credit card to go shopping, but said he became “increasingly concerned” about how much the affair was costing him.

“She was becoming a rather expensive toy that I really couldn’t afford,” said Schill, noting that Asher would charge more than $1,000 a month on his credit card.

Schill said he was also “concerned that my wife would find out.”

The relationship finally ended, Schill said, in September, 1991, on a business trip when his concerns got the better of him and he told Asher: “This relationship has got to become purely professional.” He added that he asked for his credit card back.

“How did she react to that?” Stokke asked.

“Not very well,” Schill said. “She insinuated that she was going to tell my wife.”

But even after he called off the affair, Schill loaned Asher more than $13,000 for a new car, he said. On the day he gave her a personal check for the car, they went to the Irvine Hilton and again had sex. When Stokke asked why he decided to go to the hotel with Asher when he had called off the relationship, Schill replied: “Sheer stupidity, counselor. . . . I just got a little bit carried away.”

Stokke then asked his client if he “had any motivation at all to do away with (Asher’s) boyfriend?”

“No sir, I did not,” Schill said.

Schill further said that he didn’t even know Constable’s last name, what he looked like or that he was engaged to marry Asher.

Schill also denied that he ever asked Dota to do anything illegal. He testified that Dota had a legitimate business relationship with Auto Photo Systems.

Dota, Schill explained, was paid $21,000 to find Las Vegas locations for the company’s photo vending machines. He said he “had no inkling” that Dota might be involved in organized crime and added that if he did, he would not “put at risk the fortunes of my company” by associating with Dota.

Schill did say, however, that on several occasions at trade show conventions he saw Asher and Dota have conversations. “I didn’t think anything different about it,” he said.

It has been Stokke’s contention since the trial began that Asher had just as much motive to kill her fiance as his client. Stokke contends that her motive is financial, noting that she is the beneficiary of Constable’s life insurance policies worth more than $100,000.

Under cross-examination, Assistant U.S. Atty. Paul Seave constantly referred to a transcript of a tape-recorded conversation between Asher and Schill to point out what the prosecutor thought were contradictions in Schill’s testimony.

During a Dec. 19, 1991, conversation, which Schill did not know was being recorded by law enforcement authorities, Schill said he gave Asher a $400 diamond pendant as a Christmas gift. He also offered to give the credit card back to her and asked her to go to Palm Springs with him for a couple of nights.

Schill told the jury that his overtures “had nothing to do with sex” and that he still considered Asher a “close friend” and “good company.” He added that during the course of their conversation, which took place over dinner, he had also drunk “six scotches and a bottle of wine.”

Schill was asked by Seave why, as the transcripts show, he called Dota a “gangster” if he didn’t believe he was linked to organized crime. Schill replied that he thought Dota was only trying to “portray himself as a tough guy” and didn’t think too much about it.

In a potentially damaging bit of evidence, Seave showed Schill telephone records and asked him why he called Dota in Las Vegas two days after Constable was taken to the hospital with a bullet in his head. “The calls that day were totally business-related,” Schill said.

The trial is scheduled to continue today with Schill still on the witness stand.