Contract Murder Scheme Alleged : Arrest: Target was witness in $34,000 theft case, deputies say. Suspect fatally shot youth six years ago, but grand jury did not indict him.

LAGUNA HILLS — A Costa Mesa man who fatally shot a teen-ager through a car window six years ago but was not indicted has been arrested here on suspicion of offering $5,000 to an undercover investigator to kill another man.

Eric Vincent Holt, 35, the owner of Holtz VW Repair in Costa Mesa, was arrested Monday in an alleged murder plot whose target was a witness against him in a case involving more than $34,000 worth of stolen palm trees.

Holt has been charged with stealing the trees and other landscaping materials last year from a Santa Ana Heights nursery, sheriff’s investigators said.

On Monday, in a discussion with undercover sheriff’s investigator Bill Davis, Holt allegedly discussed payment and several ways in which Davis could kill Eugene Soliz, 35, a witness scheduled to testify when the stolen palms trial begins April 27 in Santa Ana.

In a discussion monitored by a hidden car microphone, Holt suggested that Davis lure Soliz to an abandoned construction site with the promise of some quick work, kill him, then dump his body in the desert, investigators said.

As an alternative, he suggested that Davis commit a drive-by shooting, then sink Soliz’s body in the ocean or a river, investigators said.

Holt had one other piece of advice, Davis said Tuesday.

“Before he dies,” Davis recalled Holt saying, “tell him his mother is going to be the next one killed. That will really send him off. Just make sure you don’t let him get up.”

Holt and Soliz have known each other for many years, Davis said. About a year ago, Holt hired Soliz for drywall construction at his Costa Mesa home at 720 Center St.

Holt did not pay Soliz for his work as promised, Davis said.

At about the same time, Davis said, Soliz helped Holt on two or three occasions to load palm trees and decorative rock from a Santa Ana Heights nursery--Rene Grivel & Associates Inc.--into Holt’s truck.

Investigators said Soliz did not realize that the cargo, which was later planted around Holt’s home, was stolen. On the final trip, however, Holt reportedly drove away and left Soliz after the nursery owner, Rene Grivel, saw the two and yelled at them, investigators said.

Soliz reportedly then tipped Grivel off about Holt, investigators said.

Sheriff’s deputies searched Holt’s home and reclaimed some of the trees and rocks, investigators said. About a week after an arrest warrant was issued for Holt, he turned himself in to Costa Mesa police, then posted bail.

Holt told Davis in Monday’s conversation that he had thought about retribution for a long time, Davis said.

Shortly after the two discussed payment for killing Soliz, the investigator arrested Holt, Davis said.

In 1986, Holt fired a shotgun into a car window as two youths were driving away from his auto repair business. The blast killed David Gallardo, 15, of Costa Mesa.

Holt thought that the youths had been stealing expensive alloy wheels from a Porsche parked at the shop, he told police.

A 19-member grand jury, after a four-day hearing, announced that it would not indict Holt.

During the hearing, Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard M. King said he told police not to arrest Holt, a decorated Marine Corps veteran, because of his exemplary military record, his lack of criminal record and a rescue in 1984, in which he saved a woman from an armed robber near his shop.

The Gallardo family filed a $1.1-million civil lawsuit against Holt, alleging negligence and use of excessive force. That was settled about four months ago for $100,000, said the Gallardo family attorney, Amador Larry Corona.

On Tuesday night, Holt was being held in Orange County Jail in Santa Ana in lieu of $250,000 bail, authorities said. He is scheduled for arraignment today in South County Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel on suspicion of felony solicitation to commit murder.