Prosecutors aiming to connect the dots
By ALISON TULLY Special to the Daily Press
DOWNTOWN LA Auto salesman Mario Medina pointed across the courtroom on Wednesday at Olga Rutterschmidt.
“I think that’s the lady that came in to buy the car... both times,” Medina said of the Hungarian immigrant, one of the so-called “Black Widows” currently facing murder charges.“It’s much easier to remember someone in person.”
Medina was one of 14 witnesses who took to the stand Wednesday, the third day of the preliminary hearing involving Rutter-schmidt, 74, and Santa Monica landlord Helen Golay, 76, at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center. Medina’s testimony was aimed at connecting the women charged with killing two homeless men to the vehicle thought to be used in the similar, but separate, backalley hit-and-runs.
Golay, seated beside her attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, rested her feet on the back of the podium and scribbled notes throughout much of the day’s proceedings.Rutterschmidt,joined by her attorney, Public Defender Michael Sklar, listened intently to the witness accounts.
The two women were arrested on federal mail fraud charges in May 2006. The following month, the charges were dropped in favor of the murder charges. Investigators believe the pair concocted an elaborate scheme to befriend homeless men before killing them off in efforts to collect millions of dollars on the policies.
Paul Vados, 73, and Kenneth McDavid, 50, were struck and killed in similar, but distinct, hit and run incidents in 1999 and 2005, respectively. Golay and Rutterschmidt allegedly offered the two men free rent and other amenities such as clean clothes and groceries. After setting them up in apartments, the women filed for 24 life insurance policies in Vados’ and McDavid’s names. Following their deaths, the women claimed to be fiancées or relatives of the men, collecting close to $2.3 million.
Medina sold a 1999 Mercury Sable station wagon to Rutterschmidt on Jan. 20, 2004. On Wednesday, the Mexicar salesman stated that Rutterschmidt claimed she was buying a car for her friend,Hillary Adler.Medina could not identify Rutterschmidt from photos when police approached him about the case in 2006.
The 1999 Mercury Sable was recovered from a private owner, who found the car abandoned in an alley after McDavid’s death.
Testimony from other witnesses helped fill in the gaps in Medina’s testimony.
Adler, who followed Medina on the stand, said that she never asked Rutterschmidt to purchase the car. She said that the driver’s license used on the purchase form was part of several belongings from her purse stolen in May 2004 from the Santa Monica Sports Club.
The friendship of Rutterschmidt and Golay began 20 years ago at a sports and fitness club. Although the two did not meet at the club where the wallet was stolen, Deputy District Attorney Shellie Samuels said that they are hoping to prove that Golay’s daughter, Kecia Golay, 43, was a member of the club.
The Mercury station wagon was not registered in either Golay’s or Rutterschmidt’s name, but was later searched after a Post-it note with a similar vehicle identification number was found in Golay’s day planner. LAPD Robbery and Homicide Division Detective Dennis Kilcoyne said the car was searched three times in early June 2006. Seven samples were taken from the car and given to LAPD Criminal Investigator Stephanie McLean to analyze, with one of a red stain taken from near the right rear tire matching McDavid’s blood.
As the hearing progressed, more witnesses including Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team Supervisor Donald Karol, elaborated on the possible connection between the 1999 Mercury Sable and the murders. Karol, who testified that he had investigated close to 125 pedestrian accidents involving automobiles, said that he believed it was possible that a hit-and-run is a likely explanation for McDavid’s death.
On June 21, 2005, the night of McDavid’s murder, Golay called AAA from a Chevron Station located less than half a mile from where McDavid’s body was found, Karol said. He said that when he inspected the right rear of the car, where McDavid’s blood was found, he discovered wiping marks and a repaired fuel line. He said that fuel lines are usually broken when a vehicle has had a sharp impact or a collision with another object.
Diamond asked Karol if the car could have still functioned after hitting a pedestrian.
“With a small crack in the line, it could have proceeded over the body,” he said. “There was a steep grade in the alley. The car could have just rolled right down to in front of the Chevron station.”
The preliminary hearing for Golay and Rutterschmidt will reconvene this morning in Downtown Los Angeles.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 15, 2007. Read the original PDF.