Executive Helped Plan Attack, Prosecutors Say

In new allegations filed Tuesday, prosecutors charged that a Los Angeles businessman spent seven months plotting to kill an Irvine drug company executive who was shot and wounded in a bizarre case that has captured national attention.

Dino D’Saachs, 56, discussed details of the murder plan and arranged for photographs to be taken of the intended target, James Patrick Riley, as far back as last August, prosecutors alleged in court documents.

A hooded gunman shot and wounded the Biofem Inc. chief executive in the face as he arrived for work the morning of Feb. 28 at the company’s office in the Irvine Spectrum complex. Prosecutors alleged that D’Saachs helped the unidentified gunman flee the scene.

D’Saachs appeared in court Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Prosecutors also added a new allegation that D’Saachs possessed a firearm when he helped the gunman escape--an accusation that would add an extra one-year prison sentence if D’Saachs is convicted. The defendant’s attorney declined to comment on the new allegations.

Riley’s Biofem business partner, Dr. Larry C. Ford, committed suicide a day after police searched his home in connection with the shooting.

D’Saachs, a longtime friend of Ford, was at the Irvine Spectrum in his van the morning of the shooting, said his attorney, Henry Salcido. Salcido declined to say what his client was doing at the time or whether D’Saachs knows the identity of the gunman.

Investigators have said they searched D’Saachs’ home and tax consulting business and found a deed to Riley’s home, a how-to book on assassinating people titled “Hit Man” and photographs of Riley and the Irvine Spectrum complex.