This undated handout booking photo from the Los Angeles County Sheriff shows Dawn DaLuise. DaLuise, 55, was arrested after authorities say she tried to hire someone to kill a business rival she mistakenly thought was behind a cyber-stalking campaign, which included lewd flyers, emails and Craigslist ads with her address seeking men to act out a "rape fantasy." Authorities recently arrested a suspect in the case, which was not the man she sought to have killed. (AP Photo/Los Angeles County Sheriff) (The Associated Press)
LOS ANGELES – Celebrity skin specialist Dawn DaLuise is facing nine years behind bars – accused of plotting to hire a hit-man to take out a business competitor. But the details of the eye-popping murder-for-hire plot continue to get more bizarre.
A witness testified in court this week that DaLuise, 55, reached out to a number of questionable individuals with the intent to hire someone to kill Gabriel Suarez, who last year opened a beauty business Smooth Cheeks in the same West Hollywood building as her long-standing Skin Refinery.
The skin specialist once counted the likes of Alicia Silverstone, Nicki Minaj and Orlando Bloom among her clientele.
“In one instance she asked (someone) if he could get her in contact with a white supremacist group,” Los Angeles Sheriff’s Detective Steven McCauley, who is investigating the case, said on the stand. “And the phrase from that point was in essence, to find somebody to take out a ‘double minority, Mexican gay.’”
One person DaLuise allegedly contacted was a former Detroit Lions player.
DaLuise was arrested on March 5 and held at the L.A County jail on $1 million bail where she remains – although it was the celebrity facialist herself who initially reached out to authorities before the tables were allegedly turned on her.
The fiasco is said to have all started last summer when DaLuise took on the side job of managing the career for Nick Prugo, the teen male who was sentenced to two years in prison behind bars for his involvement in the Hollywood “Bling Ring,” the term coined for the group of teens who broke into a number of celebrity homes. Prugo served one year and was released April last year. The intrusions inspired the 2013 Emma Watson-starring movie of the same name.
At some point throughout their professional relationship DaLuise and Prugo apparently had a falling out. Subsequently, a man named Edward Feinstein started frequenting DaLuise’s clinic for facial treatments. Feinstein and Prugo were roommates.
“Eddie befriended Dawn, and seemed to get inside her head and convince her that it was the rival business owner (Suarez) in her building stalking her. Eventually she got so scared that she called the police and put the police in touch with Eddie as a witness to the hell she was going through,” explained a source. “But Eddie then turned and showed authorities correspondence with regards to hiring a hit man.”
One insider claimed that whatever DaLuise digitally plotted – if true – was clearly wrong, but that she does appear to have been provoked. Feinstein was taken into custody in connection to stalking DaLuise in March, and was later released on $150,000 bail.
The plot thickened when DaLuise was arrested, as she informed police that she knew Prugo and that he had violated his parole by crossing state lines and leaving California. This resulted in further investigation and him being re-arrested and being sentenced to 160 in jail. Prugo is not accused of any involvement in the murder-for-hire plot and a well-placed insider insists that he was not aware of any alleged plans hatched by Feinstein or DaLuise.
“It seemed Edward looked up to Nick and the whole ‘Bling Ring’ drama,” said one source.
Even though authorities are now deep into the case, DaLuise’s old rival Suarez told FOX411 that he still lives in fear.
“I don’t know if anyone is ever safe, no matter where you are, I thought I was safe in a nice area. I never thought a 55 year old or anybody could be so hateful,” he said. “I lost sleep. I couldn’t function and it was just debilitating...it was hard… I want to make sure justice is served and that the community is safe.”
Nobody was ever formally hired to do the hit-job, and no money ever exchanged hands. DaLuise plead not guilty to solicitation of murder and is due back in court July 17.
“No matter what, even if she gets acquitted her career is over,” added an insider. “She won’t work doing facials in this town again.”
However, DaLuise has received an outpouring of support on her private Facebook page since the March arrest.
“When you are facing crisis, remember how many times God has come through for you,” one friend wrote. “God is faithful and HE is coming again with power and great glory.”
Attorneys for DaLuise, Feinstein and Prugo – as well as the state prosecutor – did not respond to a request for comment.
Madisen Keavy contributed to this report
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