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# Helen Golay murder trial delayed until late November
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/another-delay/
- Published: 2007-09-06T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T02:46:57.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: Crime, Downtown, #archive-import, Homeless

*Lawyers for both sides to meet soon*

Golay murder trial will take more time DOWNTOWN, LA — A former Santa Monica landlord charged with murder continues to await the beginning of her trial.

The clock began ticking on Tuesday for the start of Helen Golay’s murder trial, which under state law should begin within a 60-day window. But according to prosecutors and defense attorneys, the trial will most likely not see any light until late November.

Golay, 76, and co-defendant Olga Rutterschmidt, 74, are both accused of murdering two former homeless men to cash in on their life insurance payouts.

The prosecution and defense met at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on Wednesday morning for a brief status conference, deciding to reconvene another pre-trial hearing in a few weeks.

Golay is represented by Santa Monica attorney Roger Jon Diamond and Rutterschmidt by Public Defender Michael Sklar.

Neither Golay nor Rutterschmidt were present during the pre-trial hearing. The former Ocean Park resident has a court-approved waiver from appearing for routine matters.

Deputy District Attorney Shellie Samuels told Superior Court Judge David Wesley she expected to deliver some thousands of pages of discovery to the defense attorneys next week.

In June, Wesley marked Sept. 4 as the tentative date for the start of the murder trial, setting a 60-day timer during which time the trial could begin. The so-called 0-60 clock would expire on Nov. 3, but Samuels told Wesley that a six-year-old double murder trial she is prosecuting is set to begin around that time. She estimated the trial to continue for about three weeks.

The elderly women are charged in the murders of Paul Vados and Kenneth McDavid, who were both killed in separate yet similar hit-and-run crashes in 1999 and 2005, respectively. Investigators allege the duo befriended Vados and McDavid when they were still homeless, setting them up in rent-free apartments and gaining their trust. Golay and Rutterschmidt then allegedly convinced the men to sign them onto their life insurance policies before they were killed.

Vados and McDavid were both killed in alleys — McDavid in Westwood and Vados in Hollywood.

Rutterschmidt, a Hungarian immigrant who lived in Hollywood, and Golay, who owned three apartment complexes in Ocean Park, were arrested on May 18, 2006 on federal mail fraud charges, which were dropped before the authorities filed murder charges against the two women.

The next status conference is set for Sept. 21 at 8:30 a.m.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 6, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/090607.pdf?ref=smdp.com)