Transcripts Detail Killings of Huntington Beach Couple

A Huntington Beach doctor’s mistress said she drove a hit man to a lonely stretch of Ortega Highway in 1999 and looked away while the gunman killed both the man and his wife, according to police transcripts unsealed Monday.

Adriana Vasco, facing two murder charges of aiding in the killings, said she participated only out of fear that the hit man--her former boyfriend--would hurt her or her children if she did not cooperate.

Although Kenneth Stahl had paid $30,000 to have his wife killed, the hit man ended up killing Stahl as well, Vasco said.

A judge in March refused to consider Vasco’s statements as evidence after concluding that detectives violated her constitutional rights during questioning.

Transcripts of the interviews were released Monday at the request of news media organizations, including The Times. The transcripts include several days of sheriff’s interviews with Vasco, who is awaiting trial.

Vasco told investigators about a lengthy and not-so-secret relationship with Stahl, who she said long complained about a bad marriage and referred to his wife, an optometrist, as “my roommate.”

For several years, Vasco said, Stahl talked about killing his wife rather than divorcing her. He feared that a divorce would devastate him financially, Vasco said.

“I can’t stand her anymore. I want her gone. Can you make her disappear? Do you know anybody?” Stahl said, according to Vasco. “I said no.”

That was before she met Dennis Godley, the maintenance man at her Anaheim apartment building, she told investigators. He used the name “Tony” and was wanted by authorities in North Carolina and Virginia in connection with a robbery and assault on a sheriff’s deputy. Vasco and Godley became romantically involved, she said.

Stahl eventually learned about Godley and figured he might be the man for the job, Vasco said. She told detectives she took three $10,000 payments from Stahl and gave the money to Godley.

On Nov. 29, 1999, Stahl and Godley put their plan to work, Vasco said.

Stahl took his wife to dinner at an El Torito Grill in Mission Viejo--it was Carolyn Oppy-Stahl’s 44th birthday--while Vasco and Godley waited on Ortega Highway, Vasco said.

Later that evening, Stahl drove his silver Dodge Stratus past Vasco’s car and parked on the side of the highway, all part of the plan, Vasco said.

Godley emerged in black clothes and gloves, asking the couple if they needed help, Vasco said. Moments later, Vasco said, she heard Oppy-Stahl’s screams.

“She was saying, just, ‘Oh my God!’ and yelling,” Vasco said. “I didn’t turn around. It was killing me.”

The slayings mystified detectives for more than a year. Orange County sheriff’s deputies found the couple slain in their car, the headlights on and the engine running. Cellular telephone calls from the doctor to Vasco eventually led to the arrests.

In her interview with detectives, Vasco said she still doesn’t know why Godley killed Stahl.

“I asked him that,” she said. “He said, ‘Because he didn’t follow orders.’ ”

Vasco described herself as an unwilling accomplice. She said Godley threatened to kill her on numerous occasions before the couple were slain.

“I didn’t want to do this. I swear. I didn’t want to do this,” she said.

She said she also tried unsuccessfully to persuade Stahl to back out of the murder contract.

“I begged him to stop what you’re doing. He just said, ‘What about me? You want me to suffer all these years? You want to see me suffer the rest of my life?’ ” Vasco said.

Although Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey ruled prosecutors had enough evidence to take Vasco to trial, he said they may not have enough to persuade a jury to convict her.