BY JANE PRENDERGAST
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON - A multimillionaire accused in a murder-for-hire plot says he has an alibi for one of the times he was supposedly plotting to have his wife and sister-in-law killed.
Albert Schuholz Jr. has four witnesses, according to court documents, who can testify as to his whereabouts on July 1, one of the days FBI agents say he spoke with an informant about the planned killings. One of the witnesses is one of Mr. Schuholz's former wives.
Attorneys for Mr. Schuholz, 66, of Crittenden, also hope to convince a judge that key evidence in the case - the taped statements on which he allegedly told the would-be killer to let the women bleed like stuck hogs - should be thrown out.
Authorities taped the conversations without proper authorization first, lawyers William Whalen and Michael Paolucci said. The "warrantless interception" of the tapes, they say, violates Mr. Schuholz's constitutional rights to self-incrimination and to be represented by counsel.
The lawyers and Assistant U.S. Attorney Wende Morris will debate the tapes at a hearing Tuesday morning. Ms. Morris argued in court papers that the tapes were obtained legitimately because the informant gave prior consent. She called the lawyers' motion to throw them out frivolous.
Mr. Schuholz is accused of traveling from Cincinnati to Kenton County on June 25, seeking to have his fourth wife, Norma, and her sister, Martha Schomaker, killed for $500,000. He also allegedly traveled from Ohio to Campbell County on July 1 for the same reason, offering an unspecified amount of money and a car in exchange for the killings.
The third count of the indictment accuses him of returning to Campbell County again on July 14, this time offering a car and $5,000.
His notice of alibi filed in U.S. District Court in Covington says he was in Alexandria, Cincinnati and Newport on July 1, and also at his ex-wife's house in West Chester. It did not mention his whereabouts on either of the other two days.
Mr. Schuholz had sued Norma, her sister Ms. Schomaker and their company, The Dowd Corp., alleging that Mrs. Schuholz was trying to steal what belonged to him. The company, he claimed, was set up just to manage his assets.
A judge disagreed, saying there was no legal reason to keep the company from its assets. Court records say Mrs. Schuholz got a check for just over $364,000 on July 8, a week before her husband allegedly finalized the deal to have her killed.
The recent allegations have renewed investigators' interest in a 1981 double slaying in Sharonville, Ohio.
Police extensively questioned Mr. Schuholz numerous times in 1981 in the beating and stabbing death of his wife of 16 years, Marie Schuholz, and her roommate, Starla Burns, but no one has ever been charged.
