Guilty Plea in Hit Man Scheme

A hit man will be sentenced in June to life in prison after pleading guilty to gunning down a woman at her husband’s behest -- then killing the husband as well -- five years ago on a remote stretch of Ortega Highway.

Prosecutors decided two weeks ago not to pursue the death penalty against Dennis Earl Godley, 35, after learning he had been tortured and abused as a child. Godley pleaded guilty Friday, and Orange County Superior Court Judge William R. Froeberg will formally sentence him June 11.

Neither Deputy Dist. Atty. Dennis Conway nor Assistant Public Defender Denise Gragg could be reached Monday to comment on the case.

The slayings stemmed from a murder-for-hire scheme devised by former medical receptionist Adriana Vasco, and Godley, a handyman at her Anaheim apartment complex.

Vasco was sentenced to life without parole after being convicted in November 2002.

According to court testimony, Vasco recruited Godley to kill Dr. Kenneth Stahl’s wife, Huntington Beach optometrist Carolyn Oppy-Stahl, 44. Kenneth Stahl, an anesthesiologist, had been having an affair for years with Vasco, and he wanted his wife killed because he feared divorce would financially ruin him. Stahl was to pay Godley $30,000 for the hit.

After taking his wife to a belated birthday dinner on Nov. 22, 1999, Stahl drove to an arranged spot on Ortega Highway. Vasco had driven Godley there and watched as he gunned down Oppy-Stahl then turned the gun on her husband, either out of jealousy or to eliminate a witness.

Godley’s trial was scheduled to start in late summer.

Vasco recently appealed her conviction, arguing that her attorney was not allowed to adequately cross-examine a newspaper reporter who testified against her. Her lawyer, Mark Alan Hart, said Godley’s plea will not affect the appeal.