By Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 29, 1996; Page B03

A Montgomery County Circuit Court judge yesterday rejected the defendant's claim that his mental facilities were impaired by a cocktail of tranquilizers and "too many Tums" and declined to allow millionaire developer Charles S. Shapiro to withdraw his guilty plea to the charge of hiring a hit man to kill his 70-year-old cousin.

Judge Paul A. McGuckian's ruling means Shapiro is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow on the murder conspiracy charge, finally bringing to a close at least one chapter in a murder-for-hire case that combined high finance and low comedy. He could face life in prison.

The case began on April Fools' Day in 1993, when a moonlighting Prince George's County police officer opened fire on an elderly man driving on Interstate 270. Marvin Greenfield survived that attack, as well as a second fusillade six weeks later in the curved driveway of his Bethesda home. Then he went into hiding.

Investigators eventually focused on Shapiro, a Potomac resident who had developed several large properties in Prince George's County, where he was well known as a contributor to local politicians. He is also Greenfield's cousin, and the two were engaged in a bitter court battle over $3 million Greenfield accused Shapiro of diverting from a family real estate deal.

In August 1995, police arrested Shapiro and the three men who have since been convicted of conspiring with him to kill Greenfield. Ray Alonzel Evans, now a former police officer, was sentenced to 27 years after admitting to acting as trigger man. Former Charles County strip club owner Marcello Buglisi was given a suspended sentence after admitting to acting as go-between.

After his first trial ended in a hung jury, mail room supervisor John DiGiovanni, of Bowie, was found guilty in April of acting as a second go-between in the plot. DiGiovanni's sentencing, which was to take place this morning, has been postponed.

Shapiro's February trial also ended in a hung jury. Then, as a second trial was about to convene in July, the developer stunned prosecutors by changing his plea to guilty.

At the time, McGuckian questioned Shapiro closely about the ramifications of his action, the judge noted in yesterday's six-page decision.

"There is no allegation that the defendant suffers from memory lapses," McGuckian noted dryly.

Shapiro did, however, contend that he was not thinking clearly that day, and in testimony at a Friday hearing, he blamed prescription tranquilizers, too little sleep and "too many Tums," McGuckian wrote.

Shapiro attorney Paul F. Kemp said that on top of his regular dosages of tranquilizers, the agitated developer ingested an entire bottle of extra-strength Tums in the three days before he entered the plea. Psychiatrist Michael Spodak testified that in very high quantities the antacid can cause mental lapses, which combined with the other factors left him impaired the day of the plea.

In rebuttal, prosecutors called Shapiro's own psychiatrist to testify to how Shapiro handles his medication for anxiety. The judge noted that the state's expert witness, psychiatrist Stephen Siebert, "scoffed at the Tums defense."

McGuckian also dismissed Shapiro's vague concerns about "the mob." The defendant had testified that a friend named John Smith told him of overhearing a threat that "if Charlie testifies about this, we know where his family lives," Kemp said.