COVINGTON — A 69-year-old multimillionaire who has pleaded guilty to trying to kill his fourth wife and is charged with murdering his second could escape a 10-year prison sentence by remaining in a mental hospital.

        At a hearing Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Wende Morris and Fred Stine said doctors at a federal hospital ruled that Albert J. Schuholz Jr., with addresses in West Chester Township and Crittenden, Ky., has an unspecified psychotic disorder.

        The doctors doubted Mr. Schuholz's competence to help his attorney and questioned his competence when pleading guilty last year to one of three counts of traveling in interstate commerce with the intent that a murder be committed.

        Mr. Schuholz had paid a man $5,000 to kill his wife, Norma Schuholz, and her sister, Martha Schomaker, in July 1998. The man later became an informant.

        U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman placed Mr. Schuholz in the custody of the U.S. Attor ney General's Office and warned he would remain in a federal mental hospital until he is declared sane enough to proceed with a final resentencing. His guilty plea will stand.

        “That's all right,” Mr. Schuholz said about another trip to a mental facility. “I enjoyed it.”

        “You have strange tastes,” the judge responded.

        Mr. Schuholz has served two years in prison. If he is not declared competent within the next eight years, he most likely will not return there. A list of conditions would accompany any release from a mental facility.

        This case will affect Mr. Schuholz's Hamilton County case.

        “If he won't be competent here, he won't be competent there,” said Harry Hellings, Mr. Schuholz's attorney.

        In November, Mr. Schuholz was charged with the 1981 beating and stabbing deaths of his second wife, Marie, and family friend Starla Burns. Police say someone was hired to kill them.

        That case was on hold while federal prosecutors concluded their case. But now, Hamilton County prosecutors said they could pursue a detainer against Mr. Schuholz.

        He would return to their custody so that they could pursue their charge against him. But they said they are more likely to let him remain in the mental facility until he is declared competent.

        Thursday's hearing brought joy to Norma Schuholz.

        “He is mentally ill. It's closure in a way,” she said.

        Mrs. Schuholz wears a hearing aid; her husband struck her so hard that she suffered hearing loss and needed reconstructive surgery on her ear.

        She said she didn't suspect her husband's instability until investigators reopened the 1981 murder case.

        She remembered that he became paranoid and emotionally erratic.

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