Golay’s murder trial scheduled to begin FROM GRANNY TO INMATE
DOWNTOWN, L.A. The clock starts ticking today for the start of the murder trial starring a former Santa Monica landlady accused of killing two homeless men to cash in on their life insurance policies.
A trial date could be set on Wednesday as the prosecution and defense attorneys for Helen Golay, 76, of Santa Monica and Olga Rutterschmidt, 74, of Hollywood meet at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center for a pre-trial hearing at 9 a.m.
In June, a superior court judge tentatively set the trial date for the day after Labor Day and under state law, the trial would have to begin within a 60-day window. Though the pre-trial date was postponed to Wednesday, it is expected the 60-day clock would begin ticking today.
The two elderly women, accused of killing two homeless men in separate yet similar hit-and-run incidents, have been held in connection with the murders since last year, housed in the women’s detention center in Lynwood.
“She’s looking forward to having the trial and looking forward to having an acquittal soon so she can get home,” said Golay’s defense attorney Roger Jon Diamond.
Deputy District Attorney Shellie Samuels has yet to determine whether the trial will be a capital case.
“We’ll make a decision whether to seek death or life without parole,” said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the DA’s office.
The case has been moving at a sluggish pace since the women’s arrest mid-last year, stemming from a series of events including a change in public defenders early on for Rutterschmidt, prompting her new attorney, Michael Sklar, to request more time to review the case before moving on to a preliminary hearing.
A murder case, especially one as sensitive and complicated as this, takes time, said Laurie Levinson, professor of criminal law at Loyola Law School in Downtown Los Angeles.
“The truth is there is a lot of investigation you need to do in a case like this because it is a circumstantial case,”Levinson said. “The elderly defendants never had trouble with the law at all, so you better have evidence before you go to trial.”
Complicating the case is the fact that there have been no eyewitnesses to the alleged hit-and-run incidents, she said.
A good example of how lengthy the criminal justice system can be is the Phil Spector case. The music producer was arrested in 2003 in connection with the death of actress Lana Clarkson. His case didn’t commence until earlier this year.
“If anything, these days, nobody wants to be accused of rush to judgment in the post OJ (Simpson) case,” Levinson said.
The owner of three apartment complexes in Ocean Park, including a pink building on Ocean Park Boulevard in which she lived, Golay and Rutterschmidt, a Hungarian immigrant, were arrested on May 18, 2006, charged with federal mail fraud charges, suspected by investigators of being connected with the deaths of two homeless men.
Authorities dropped the mail fraud charges shortly before filing murder charges against the women in late July of last year.
Investigators believe Golay and Rutterschmidt befriended Kenneth McDavid and Paul Vados, setting them up in rent-free apartments and convincing them to sign the women onto their life insurance policies.
McDavid and Vados were found dead in separate hit-and-run incidents in 2005 and 1999, respectively. Both were determined to have been killed in alleys — McDavid in Westwood and Vados in Hollywood.
During a preliminary hearing in March, investigators revealed a series of insurance applications and claim forms showing the women claiming various types of relationships with the victims, including fiancés, cousins and business partners. Relatives of the two men testified during the preliminary hearing, confirming that they had no knowledge of being related to Golay or Rutterschmidt.
Golay’s AAA membership card was also found to be used to tow a vehicle just blocks from where the collision occurred in Westwood. The tow truck driver testified during prelims, stating he recalled dropping off a person about a block from where Golay lived in Santa Monica.
Throughout the preliminary proceedings, Diamond objected to his client being awakened in the early morning hours on the day of court appearances, claiming that she was physically exhausted and not mentally sharp as a result.
Diamond filed a petition in April challenging the validity of the preliminary hearing, alleging his client was denied sufficient rest. The state supreme court denied a hearing on the petition a few weeks ago. The Santa Monica-based attorney said he intended to plead to the judge once again that his client be treated better in prison, claiming Golay is not receiving a proper diet for her high blood pressure.
“She’s anxious to get the case to trial,” Diamond said. “The situation in the jail is very unpleasant.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 4, 2007. Read the original PDF.