Biofem Getaway Driver Guilty

A Los Angeles businessman accused of being the getaway driver in an elaborate plot to kill an Irvine drug company executive was convicted Friday of attempted murder, even as investigators continue struggling to identify the gunman and sort out the mystery.

The case, set in the backdrop of the South Africa military and high-stakes drug research, centers around last year’s shooting by a masked gunman of Biofem Inc. CEO James Patrick Riley as he walked into work at the Irvine Spectrum.

Police allege Riley’s business partner, Dr. Larry C. Ford, masterminded the scheme so he wouldn’t have to share profits from the company’s breakthrough medical products. Ford committed suicide shortly after the shooting that left Riley with a cheek wound.

The guilty verdict against the getaway driver, Dino D’Saachs, a longtime friend of Ford’s, represents the first conviction in the case. Prosecutors are now confident they will eventually track down the other suspects.

“The time will come when everyone involved in this serious crime will be held accountable,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ebrahim Baytieh.

The verdict capped a two-week trial in which prosecutors tried to prove that the plot was driven by Ford’s greed and his longtime friendship with D’Saachs, a man described as a “contract killer” who kept a “how-to” book on assassinations in his office desk.

Riley expressed satisfaction with the verdict, but said the trial had been an emotional struggle. Though his cheek wound has healed, he still finds it hard to believe that his ex-partner plotted his death.

“It hurt,” he said. “It was emotionally difficult to hear that the man you were in business with wanted you departed from the scene.”

As the verdict was read, the 58-year-old D’Saachs showed no emotion. An Altadena resident who owns several Los Angeles businesses, D’Saachs faces 26 years to life in prison at his June sentencing hearing.

D’Saachs’ attorney, Danny Davis, would not say whether his client knows the identity of the gunman, or whether he plans to assist investigators. The trial, Davis said, was just a “short statement about a complex event” and that the case was far from over.

He said he will request a new trial on grounds that numerous judicial and prosecutorial errors were committed during the trial.

The shooting occurred as Riley arrived for work on the morning of Feb. 28, 2000. After he emerged from his car, a black-clad gunman appeared and fired a pistol at his head from close range. The bullet ricocheted off Riley’s cheekbone and through a nearby office window.

The gunman fled between two buildings and dived into a passing van that prosecutors say was driven by D’Saachs. D’Saachs was arrested later that day after police matched his van’s license plate number with a witness description.

Days after the attack, detectives began a search of Ford’s home that led to the discovery of a cache of illegal weapons and explosives buried in his backyard. They also found cholera- and typhoid fever-causing bacteria in the home, which forced the evacuation of 200 Irvine residents.

The discoveries triggered an investigation into “weapons of mass destruction” by the FBI. Investigators later discovered that Ford was involved in South Africa’s apartheid-era biochemical warfare program.

Testimony during the trial revealed little about the FBI investigation or Ford’s background. But Riley at one point testified that he believed his ex-partner was in the CIA and had boasted of working for a U.S. general in charge of a biological weapons program.

Prosecutors claimed that Ford wanted Riley dead so he could reap riches from a revolutionary female contraceptive product and a drug that could potentially cure AIDS. Both drugs would generate millions in revenues when they reached the market, prosecutors said.

Though each man owned 25% of the company, Riley effectively controlled the firm by having greater stockholder voting rights.

D’Saachs was linked to the crime through cellular phone records showing he placed four calls to Ford in the minutes before the shooting. Witnesses also testified that they saw a gunman jump in a van that matched the description of D’Saachs’ vehicle.

Though D’Saachs was never identified as the driver of the van, investigators tracked down the license plate description to D’Saachs’ home. A search of the van turned up a magazine of .380-caliber bullets that matched the bullet fired at Ford.

Investigators later found at D’Saachs’ office a “how-to” book on assassinations as well as diagrams of the parking lot and pictures of Riley.