The owner of a West Hollywood skin care business that caters to celebrities was ordered to stand trial on a murder solicitation charge stemming from an alleged attempt to hire a former NFL player to kill one of her competitors, it was announced June 23.
Dawn Melody DaLuise, the 55-year-old proprietor of the Skin Refinery at 8543 Santa Monica Boulevard, was charged March 7 with the felony count.
On her website, DaLuise says she’s a former Frederick’s of Hollywood model whose skin-care clients have included Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Alicia Silverstone, Christina Ricci, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alyson Hannigan, and Sally Struthers.
Detectives said she was looking to put a hit out on the wrong target.
They were investigating a cyber-stalking case when they received information about the alleged murder-for-hire plot, targeting Gabriel Suarez, who opened Smooth Cheeks next door to Skin Refinery in late summer of last year.
According to the criminal complaint, DaLuise tried to hire Chris Geile, an Anaheim native who played in three games as an offensive lineman for the Detroit Lions in 1987. Sheriff’s officials said there was no evidence that Geile or anyone else acted to carry out the killing.
A week after arresting DaLuise, Sheriff’s detectives arrested Edward Feinstein, 30.
Detectives said Feinstein, who had a falling out with DaLuise, created and began distributing sexually explicit fliers containing an image of DaLuise’s face and posted ads on Craigslist, posing as DaLuise and soliciting males to act out a “rape fantasy.”
Believing Suarez had posted the ads, DaLuise starting texting and calling “more than one person in an effort to hire someone to kill the person she believed was trying to solicit rape against her and threaten the safety of her daughters,” according to Sheriff’s Capt. Mike Parker.
Feinstein was released March 12 on $150,000 bail. The status of charges against him, if any, were not immediately available.
DaLuise, who has been jailed in lieu of $1 million bail since her arrest, is scheduled for arraignment on July 7.
If convicted as charged, she faces a maximum sentence of nine years in prison, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
