Monday, May 03, 1999
Millionaire doesn't take trial chance
Plea entered in death plot
BY SUSAN VELA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Albert J. Schuholz would have faced too big a gamble if he had appeared in federal court today to face three counts of trying to have his wife and her sister killed last year, said Mr. Schuholz's attorney, Harry Hellings.
The evidence that Assistant U.S. Attorneys Wende Morris and Fred Stine had gathered was “too strong,” Mr. Hellings said, which made it smarter for Mr. Schuholz to plead guilty rather than face the outcome of a trial that was to begin today.
Mr. Schuholz, a 67-year-old millionaire who lists addresses in Crittenden and West Chester, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court to one of three counts of traveling in interstate commerce with the intent that a murder be committed.
The prosecution team agreed to drop the other two counts because of the plea, which means Mr. Schuholz will
face up to 10 years in prison — instead of up to 30 — when he is sentenced July 27.
He is also looking at the possibility of up to $250,000 in fines — instead of up to $750,000.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory Wehrman has said Mr. Schuholz's sentence could be reduced to eight years in prison and between $15,000 and $150,000 in fines because of the plea deal.
According to court documents and testimony, the Schuholzes were divorcing last June after six years of marriage.
Mr. Schuholz was embroiled in a financial dispute with his estranged wife, Norma, and her sister, Martha Schomaker, who headed a corporation together, when — the prosecution says — he began making trips from Cincinnati to Northern Kentucky to plot their deaths.
Prosecutors had outlined these accusations to support the charges he faced:
• On June 25, he offered $500,000 to have the two killed.
• On July 1, he visited Northern Kentucky again to further plot the killing of the two and offered an unspecified amount of cash and a car to get the job done.
• On July 14, he offered $5,000 and a car for the same purpose.
FBI Special Agent Larry Adams has testified that Mr. Schuholz suggested to an FBI informant in taped conversations that a knife be used in the killing and that the women be made to “bleed like stuck hogs.”
Mrs. Schuholz, whose divorce has not been made final, and Ms. Schomaker could not be reached for comment.
Messages often leave drivers in the dark
You can dial up the path of least resistance
ARTIMIS services manage 88 miles of freeway traffic
Issue 4 divides interest groups
Lessons from the master
Levies allow extra money
Teachers get news by mail: You're fired
Bridge gets new lease on life
Partners' aquarium dream 10 years old
Author says peace comes from within
Millionaire doesn't take trial chance
Oldest, middle or baby?
Princeton to discuss tax levy
Blessed are the animals of N.Ky.
Middletown touts new sewers
River town making most of its levee
Rules on students hold up in court
GET TO IT
TRISTATE DIGEST
