Apr 6, 2006 6:17 am US/Eastern
Police Say Jealous Husband Arranged Newton Murder
NEWTON (CBS4) ―
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Police say James Brescia hired a hitman to shoot Edward Schiller in the head because he suspected Schiller was having an affair with his wife.
CBS4
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Schiller was found shot in the head in a parking garage in Newton January 13.
CBS4
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Prosecutors say Scott Foxworth was the paid hitman who carried out the execution.
CBS4
Prosecutors say a jealous husband paid $10,000 to a bartender to fatally shoot a man who was dating his estranged wife.
The body of 39-year-old Edward Schiller was found Jan. 13 slumped behind the wheel of his car in a private parking garage near his office at Aronson Insurance Co. in Newton.
Authorities say James Brescia, 46, of Waltham, hired Scott Foxworth, 52, of Dracut, to shoot Schiller in the head because Schiller was having a relationship with his wife, Stacey. The Brescias, who had been living separately, have three children, ages 4, 6, and 8.
Foxworth, who served four years in prison for a 1978 murder, was ordered held without bail Wednesday after pleading not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy.
Brescia, who had no prior criminal record, also was held without bail after pleading not guilty to the same charges.
Authorities say he ordered the hit after his wife served him with divorce papers.
"My brother is a beautiful person who is missed by many people, and those spineless cowards stole him from us without a second thought," Schiller's brother, Carl Schiller, said after the arraignments in Newton District Court. "We are confident that justice will be served in this case and those cowards will spend the remainder of their lives in prison."
"It seemed to be well-planned. It seemed to be a professional execution," Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley said.
Court records show Brescia met Foxworth through a co-worker at Raytheon and originally discussed beating Schiller.
Coakley said Foxworth, a bartender at the Dracut American Legion, stalked Schiller, learned his daily patterns and waited in the parking garage to kill him.
Schiller sensed he was in danger, according to friends who talked to police. He told them "if (he) end(ed) up with a bullet in his head, (they would) know who did it," according to a police report.
Unnamed witnesses interviewed by police say Brescia told them if Schiller kept up his relationship with his wife, "it would not be good for his health," the report says.
Schiller was unmarried and had no children.
Telephone records were used to build the case against the men, Coakley said.
Authorities say they're still looking for the gun. A single 9mm shell casing was found near Schiller's body.
The killing shocked some in Newton, a mostly affluent suburb of 80,000 people located just west of Boston. It had recently been named the safest city in America for the second straight year by Morgan Quitno Press, which publishes the annual "City Crime Rankings."
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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