CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
Killer lays out grisly details of murder spree
Throats were cut, victims sliced up, fed to rottweiler
Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, May 28, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A woman who helped kill five people detailed the full depravity of the crimes Thursday, describing a house of horrors where three people were beaten and dismembered, a rottweiler was fed human flesh, and the architect of the slayings said he was guided to kill by a higher power.
In grotesque testimony, Dawn Godman, 30, told a Contra Costa County jury that Glenn Helzer had called her, on Aug. 2, 2000, into the bathroom of the Concord home where they planned a murder spree.
Helzer wanted her to witness the third of their five killings -- the slaying of the 22-year-old daughter of blues musician Elvin Bishop, Selina Bishop, who had been bludgeoned with a hammer and was to be dismembered.
"He looked at me, and he said, 'Spirit says you get to know: this isn't a dream,' and then he cut her throat," Godman said.
Godman is the star witness in the capital murder trial of Helzer's younger brother, Justin Helzer, 32, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. She agreed to cooperate with the prosecution as part of a plea bargain that will send her to prison for 38 years to life.
Glenn Helzer, 33, pleaded guilty just before his trial was to begin. A jury still must decide whether to sentence him to death.
Godman said she and the Helzers had killed as part of a scheme to raise at least $1 million for a self-help group called "Transform America" that would, ultimately, hasten Christ's return to Earth.
About a dozen of the victims' relatives, seated inside a courtroom of the Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez, heard Godman testify. They cried quietly and lowered their heads, and they hugged outside the courtroom during breaks.
Godman said Justin Helzer was directly involved in the killings. But defense attorney Daniel Cook, who will cross-examine Godman Tuesday, said outside court that Godman would also show that his client was under Glenn Helzer's control.
"It's clear and uncontroverted that in Dawn's and Justin's case, they thought they were following the word of God," Cook said. "Justin was not capable of distinguishing what was morally right and what was morally wrong."
Godman said she had met the Helzers on Memorial Day 1999, at a murder- and-mystery themed dinner at a Walnut Creek Mormon church. The relationships took a dark turn, Godman said, when Glenn Helzer shared his ideas to "transform America," starting in small towns.
One idea for financing the plan was a prostitution ring for rich men who might later be blackmailed. Another, Godman said, would have had the trio trading stock in a fast-food chain and manipulating the price by blasting out restaurant windows or phoning in threats.
Godman said the trio had eventually focused on a plan they called "Children of Thunder." They moved into a house on Saddlewood Court in Concord in April 2000. They created pseudonyms, Godman said, and got three dogs they thought could be used to eat their murder victims.
The plan moved forward on July 30, 2000, Godman said. Glenn Helzer, who was a stockbroker, had identified five former clients as potential victims. Annette Stineman, 78, and Ivan Stineman, 85, were No. 2 on the list, and they moved up when the top choice wasn't home that evening.
Godman said she had waited in Justin Helzer's truck on Frayne Lane in Concord while the brothers, dressed in suits, kidnapped the Stinemans in their own van and took them back to their place.
The next day, Glenn Helzer forced the Stinemans to take six pills each of the "date-rape" drug Rohypnol and sign over checks for $100,000, Godman said. Annette Stineman was falling asleep from the pills and was forced to smoke crystal methamphetamine in an effort to wake her. It didn't work, Godman said, and she signed a check herself.
The brothers tried to suffocate the couple, but they fought back, Godman said. Glenn Helzer then cut Annette Stineman's throat while his brother smashed Ivan Stineman's head against the floor. When his wife died, "Ivan quit struggling and died right after that," Godman said.
The next day, Tuesday, Godman went to deposit the checks. She returned to find the Stinemans in garbage bags.
On Wednesday, Bishop, who had from the beginning been targeted to deposit the checks and then be murdered to hide the crime, was bludgeoned to death by the brothers and dismembered, Godman said.
The next morning, Glenn Helzer fatally shot Bishop's mother, Jennifer Villarin, and Villarin's boyfriend, James Gamble, in Marin County because he thought they knew of the plan, Godman said.
Later that day at the Helzers' house, Godman said, she held the three severed heads while Justin Helzer smashed the teeth with a hammer and a chisel -- an effort to make body identification more difficult.
Godman said Glenn Helzer had fed some of Bishop's flesh to his dog but realized the bodies were too big to be consumed by the dogs and would have to be dumped.
The trio then put the bodies in duffel bags and dumped them in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. On the way home, Godman said, she and Glenn Helzer had stopped for a shot of tequila.
Throughout her testimony, Godman repeated: "I just did what Taylor told me to do," and said she didn't know the difference between wrong and right at the time.
Asked by prosecutor Harold Jewett whether she had anything to say, Godman paused and said: "The reason why I agreed to this plea and to testify is that I felt it was time that the truth of these events be known to the families of the victims, so they can heal their lives and move on."
Addressing the courtroom, Judge Mary Ann O'Malley then said, "OK, deep breath."
Glenn Taylor Helzer, the self-described prophet from Concord who masterminded five slayings in 2000, planned to go quite a bit further, turning Brazilian orphans into "private assassins" who would, as teenagers, kill 15 leaders of the Mormon Church in Utah, according to testimony.
The bizarre plan, dubbed "Brazil," was detailed in a Contra Costa County courtroom Tuesday by Helzer's former roommate and accomplice, Dawn Godman.
Godman said survivors of the Salt Lake City slaughter would blame the killings on the "government behind the government." They would then declare Helzer -- who was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints in 1998 -- the new prophet for the world's 12 million Mormons.
"He believed that by doing that, he was fulfilling a prophecy from the Book of Mormon," she said.
Godman, 30, is the star witness in the capital murder trial of Helzer's younger brother, 32-year-old Justin Helzer, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Godman and the Helzers are accused of killing five people, including Selina Bishop, 22, the daughter of blues musician Elvin Bishop, in a scheme called "Children of Thunder." The goal was to extort money for larger plans, the biggest being a self-help group called Transform America that would bring on "Christ's millennial reign," Godman said.
Godman agreed to cooperate with prosecutors under a plea bargain that will send her to prison for 38 years to life. Glenn Taylor Helzer, 33, pleaded guilty just before his trial was to begin; a jury still must decide whether to sentence him to death.
Much of the trial has focused on Justin Helzer's charismatic and ambitious older brother and his plans to hasten Christ's return to Earth. During a lengthy cross-examination of Godman on Tuesday, defense attorney Daniel Cook sought to show that Justin Helzer blindly followed an older brother who he believed had a direct connection with God.
Jay Pimentel, a Bay Area spokesman for the Mormon Church, expressed surprise to hear of Helzer's "Brazil" plan.
She responded, "At times, no."
Killer lays out grisly details of murder spree
Throats were cut, victims sliced up, fed to rottweiler
Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, May 28, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A woman who helped kill five people detailed the full depravity of the crimes Thursday, describing a house of horrors where three people were beaten and dismembered, a rottweiler was fed human flesh, and the architect of the slayings said he was guided to kill by a higher power.
In grotesque testimony, Dawn Godman, 30, told a Contra Costa County jury that Glenn Helzer had called her, on Aug. 2, 2000, into the bathroom of the Concord home where they planned a murder spree.
Helzer wanted her to witness the third of their five killings -- the slaying of the 22-year-old daughter of blues musician Elvin Bishop, Selina Bishop, who had been bludgeoned with a hammer and was to be dismembered.
"He looked at me, and he said, 'Spirit says you get to know: this isn't a dream,' and then he cut her throat," Godman said.
Godman is the star witness in the capital murder trial of Helzer's younger brother, Justin Helzer, 32, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. She agreed to cooperate with the prosecution as part of a plea bargain that will send her to prison for 38 years to life.
Glenn Helzer, 33, pleaded guilty just before his trial was to begin. A jury still must decide whether to sentence him to death.
Godman said she and the Helzers had killed as part of a scheme to raise at least $1 million for a self-help group called "Transform America" that would, ultimately, hasten Christ's return to Earth.
About a dozen of the victims' relatives, seated inside a courtroom of the Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez, heard Godman testify. They cried quietly and lowered their heads, and they hugged outside the courtroom during breaks.
Godman said Justin Helzer was directly involved in the killings. But defense attorney Daniel Cook, who will cross-examine Godman Tuesday, said outside court that Godman would also show that his client was under Glenn Helzer's control.
"It's clear and uncontroverted that in Dawn's and Justin's case, they thought they were following the word of God," Cook said. "Justin was not capable of distinguishing what was morally right and what was morally wrong."
Godman said she had met the Helzers on Memorial Day 1999, at a murder- and-mystery themed dinner at a Walnut Creek Mormon church. The relationships took a dark turn, Godman said, when Glenn Helzer shared his ideas to "transform America," starting in small towns.
One idea for financing the plan was a prostitution ring for rich men who might later be blackmailed. Another, Godman said, would have had the trio trading stock in a fast-food chain and manipulating the price by blasting out restaurant windows or phoning in threats.
Godman said the trio had eventually focused on a plan they called "Children of Thunder." They moved into a house on Saddlewood Court in Concord in April 2000. They created pseudonyms, Godman said, and got three dogs they thought could be used to eat their murder victims.
The plan moved forward on July 30, 2000, Godman said. Glenn Helzer, who was a stockbroker, had identified five former clients as potential victims. Annette Stineman, 78, and Ivan Stineman, 85, were No. 2 on the list, and they moved up when the top choice wasn't home that evening.
Godman said she had waited in Justin Helzer's truck on Frayne Lane in Concord while the brothers, dressed in suits, kidnapped the Stinemans in their own van and took them back to their place.
The next day, Glenn Helzer forced the Stinemans to take six pills each of the "date-rape" drug Rohypnol and sign over checks for $100,000, Godman said. Annette Stineman was falling asleep from the pills and was forced to smoke crystal methamphetamine in an effort to wake her. It didn't work, Godman said, and she signed a check herself.
The brothers tried to suffocate the couple, but they fought back, Godman said. Glenn Helzer then cut Annette Stineman's throat while his brother smashed Ivan Stineman's head against the floor. When his wife died, "Ivan quit struggling and died right after that," Godman said.
The next day, Tuesday, Godman went to deposit the checks. She returned to find the Stinemans in garbage bags.
On Wednesday, Bishop, who had from the beginning been targeted to deposit the checks and then be murdered to hide the crime, was bludgeoned to death by the brothers and dismembered, Godman said.
The next morning, Glenn Helzer fatally shot Bishop's mother, Jennifer Villarin, and Villarin's boyfriend, James Gamble, in Marin County because he thought they knew of the plan, Godman said.
Later that day at the Helzers' house, Godman said, she held the three severed heads while Justin Helzer smashed the teeth with a hammer and a chisel -- an effort to make body identification more difficult.
Godman said Glenn Helzer had fed some of Bishop's flesh to his dog but realized the bodies were too big to be consumed by the dogs and would have to be dumped.
The trio then put the bodies in duffel bags and dumped them in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. On the way home, Godman said, she and Glenn Helzer had stopped for a shot of tequila.
Throughout her testimony, Godman repeated: "I just did what Taylor told me to do," and said she didn't know the difference between wrong and right at the time.
Asked by prosecutor Harold Jewett whether she had anything to say, Godman paused and said: "The reason why I agreed to this plea and to testify is that I felt it was time that the truth of these events be known to the families of the victims, so they can heal their lives and move on."
Addressing the courtroom, Judge Mary Ann O'Malley then said, "OK, deep breath."
Glenn Taylor Helzer, the self-described prophet from Concord who masterminded five slayings in 2000, planned to go quite a bit further, turning Brazilian orphans into "private assassins" who would, as teenagers, kill 15 leaders of the Mormon Church in Utah, according to testimony.
The bizarre plan, dubbed "Brazil," was detailed in a Contra Costa County courtroom Tuesday by Helzer's former roommate and accomplice, Dawn Godman.
Godman said survivors of the Salt Lake City slaughter would blame the killings on the "government behind the government." They would then declare Helzer -- who was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints in 1998 -- the new prophet for the world's 12 million Mormons.
"He believed that by doing that, he was fulfilling a prophecy from the Book of Mormon," she said.
Godman, 30, is the star witness in the capital murder trial of Helzer's younger brother, 32-year-old Justin Helzer, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Godman and the Helzers are accused of killing five people, including Selina Bishop, 22, the daughter of blues musician Elvin Bishop, in a scheme called "Children of Thunder." The goal was to extort money for larger plans, the biggest being a self-help group called Transform America that would bring on "Christ's millennial reign," Godman said.
Godman agreed to cooperate with prosecutors under a plea bargain that will send her to prison for 38 years to life. Glenn Taylor Helzer, 33, pleaded guilty just before his trial was to begin; a jury still must decide whether to sentence him to death.
Much of the trial has focused on Justin Helzer's charismatic and ambitious older brother and his plans to hasten Christ's return to Earth. During a lengthy cross-examination of Godman on Tuesday, defense attorney Daniel Cook sought to show that Justin Helzer blindly followed an older brother who he believed had a direct connection with God.
Jay Pimentel, a Bay Area spokesman for the Mormon Church, expressed surprise to hear of Helzer's "Brazil" plan.
She responded, "At times, no."
