People v. Helzer

• Docket Number: S132256
• Decision Date: 22 January 2024
• Citation: 317 Cal.Rptr.3d 246,541 P.3d 489
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Glen Taylor HELZER, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: California Supreme Court

317 Cal.Rptr.3d 246

541 P.3d 489

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.Glen Taylor HELZER, Defendant and Appellant.

S132256

Supreme Court of California.

January 22, 2024

Contra Costa County Superior Court, 012057-6, Mary Ann O’Malley, Judge

Jeanne Keevan-Lynch, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris and Rob Bonta, Attorneys General, Gerald A. Engler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Ronald S. Matthias, Assistant Attorney General, Glenn R. Pruden and Sarah J. Farhat, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Opinion of the Court by Guerrero, C. J.

DefendantGlen Taylor Heizer pleaded guilty to five counts of murder (Pen. Code, § 187)¹ and admitted associated special circumstances as follows: the murders of Ivan and Annette Stineman, with robbery and kidnapping special circumstances (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(i), (ii)); the murder of Selina Bishop, with the special circumstance of murder to prevent testimony (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(10)); and the murders of Jennifer Villarin and James Gamble, with a multiple-murder special circumstance for Gamble’s murder (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3)).Defendant also pleaded guilty to conspiracy (§ 182, subd. (a)(1)); two counts of kidnapping (§ 209); extortion (§§ 518,520); three counts of robbery (§§ 211,212.5, subd. (a)); three counts of burglary (§§ 459,460); attempted robbery (§§ 211,212.5, subd. (a),664); false imprisonment (§§ 236,237); and possession of a controlled substance for sale (Health & Saf. Code, § 11378).He also admitted a weapons enhancement (§ 12022, subd. (b)(1)) connected with the burglary, robbery, and false imprisonment counts.Following a penalty trial, a jury returned a verdict of death for the five counts of murder and the court imposed a judgment of death.Defendant also received sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the kidnapping counts, 25 years to life for the conspiracy count, and additional determinate sentences for the remaining counts.This appeal is automatic.(§ 1239, subd, (b).)We affirm the judgment.

I.Factual Background

Defendant, his brotherJustin Heizer,² and their friend Dawn Godman were charged as codefendants in the kidnapping and murders of Ivan and Annette Stineman and the murders of Selina Bishop, Bishop’s mother, Jennifer Villarin, and Villarin’s friend James Gamble.Godman subsequently pleaded guilty to 18 counts in exchange for her agreement to testify against defendant and Justin.After the trial court denied the brothers’ motions for separate trials, defendant pleaded guilty to all charges and received a penalty phase trial.³

A.Prosecution Evidence

1.Defendant’s Background

The prosecution presented evidence at the penalty phase regarding defendant’s life before he committed the charged crimes.This evidence covered defendant’s experience with the Mormon faith and his excommunication; his work as a financial advisor, which was how he met the Stinemans; his drug abuse; and moneymaking schemes, with the crimes in this case resulting from one of those schemes.

a. The Mormon Church

Defendant was raised in the Mormon church and practiced this religion into adulthood.A former Mormon bishop testified regarding his understanding of the Mormon faith.Among other tenets, he described the belief that individuals can receive revelations from God, communicate with spirits, and become a god.A woman who attended church with Godman also provided testimony regarding Mormon beliefs, including the view that certain men were prophets of God.

Defendant began to disagree with the direction of the church’s principles and spoke of getting messages from "Spirit."He told others that killing is sanctioned if it is God’s will, and cited passages from the Bible and Book of Mormon for support.He believed there was no light or wrong, and that all people had the potential to become gods.Defendant believed he was close to becoming a god.He also believed he was a prophet and he held meetings in the church parking lot with Justin.

Sometime in 1999 or 2000, defendant spoke at a church event about taking a hiatus from the Mormon church.His appearance was "striking" — he had long, dark hair and facial hair, wore peculiar glasses, and wore a long black trench coat.He was eventually excommunicated from the church.

b. Financial work

In 1992, defendant began working as a financial advisor trainee at a Morgan Stanley branch in Concord.A stockbroker at the firm described defendant as "a good, clean Mormon kid" who was "happy-go-lucky" when he joined the team.Defendant had many clients, including the Stinemans who were retired and financially well off.Defendant developed a friendly relationship with the Stinemans and frequently visited their home to help with their finances.The Stinemans spoke fondly of defendant.

In 1996, after defendant got married and shortly after the birth of his first daughter, he began to change.Defendant started smoking, staying out late at night clubs, and going into work late.Clients began complaining to defendant’s manager that he was not returning their phone calls.Defendant told his manager that he did not believe his actions would impact his life or his career, and when he was through having fun, he would come back to work and function as a financial advisor and a father.

Defendant left the firm in 1998.He told several people that he was faking a psychiatric illness and had himself declared legally insane to collect disability payments and avoid legal punishment.Defendant had to visit doctors to confirm the existence of a disability.In preparation for the visits, he would deliberately not shower or shave and would practice how to act in front of the doctors.Defendant was formally terminated from the firm in 1999.

c. Drug use and moneymaking schemes

Between 1996 and the time he was arrested, defendant used marijuana, Ecstasy, and methamphetamine.He also made methamphetamine in his garage and sold Ecstasy at raves.

Defendant met Godman at a church event in late 1997.They had extensive conversations about defendant’s philosophy of living one’s life in alignment with God; Godman accepted these principles as true.She believed that defendant and Jesus Christ were brothers, and that defendant was a prophet of God.In February 2000, Godman joined defendant in selling drugs.

In 1998, defendant met Keri Mendoza.She thought defendant was "full of life and love."They began a romantic relationship and she eventually moved in with defendant and Justin.Defendant introduced her to Ecstasy about one month after she moved in, During the course of their relationship, Mendoza provided the primary source of income for herself and defendant.She also loaned defendant money, Despite this, defendant was in significant debt.He wanted to be "set for life" and had several illicit moneymaking ideas to try to make that happen.

In late 1998 or early 1999, defendant proposed several escort schemes.Many involved throwing parties where men could pay to get into the party and then have their choice of the women in the room.Another scheme involved tricking young stockbrokers into having sex with underage girls and then blackmailing the stockbrokers’ company for money.None of these schemes came to fruition.

At some point in 1998, defendant came up with the idea of "Transform America."The idea was to create an organization of people who were committed to bring Harmony, a self-help program he had previously attended, to the world.The plan required an "inner core" of three people — defendant plus two others who had to earn his trust and be loyal to him.Lina Richardson, who met defendant at a Harmony training, testified that one example of the kind of trust and loyalty defendant wanted was if he killed someone and brought the body home, a person would cut up and hide the body without asking a single question.The inner core was originally defendant, Justin, and Mendoza.After defendant and Mendoza ended their relationship around December 1999, Godman became the third person, In March or April 2000, defendant, Justin, and Godman moved into a house located on Saddlewood Court in Concord.

Around the time they moved to this house, defendant came up with a plan called "Children of Thunder."The plan was to extort money from one of defendant’s past clients to fund Transform America and bring about the second coming of Jesus Christ peacefully.Defendant believed that the second coming would be preceded by darkness and apostasy, and to avoid the darkness, he would sacrifice a few to save billions.According to Godman, defendant planned to "take one of [his] past clients … and extort them for their money that was in their [brokerage] account, to kill them and to have another individual take — deposit the money in another individual’s account, and then have that individual withdraw the money and give it to [defendant]."The individual withdrawing the money would also be killed.The Saddlewood house in Concord was going to be the base of operations for the first step of this scheme.

2.Circumstances of the Crimes

Defendant identified former clients of his who maintained a brokerage portfolio of at least $100,000.Justin purchased a Beretta nine-millimeter semiautomatic firearm and defendant removed the serial number from his own .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol.

Defendant, Justin, and Godman thought of ideas for how to dispose of the bodies.One involved getting dogs from a shelter and having the dogs eat the bodies.They adopted three dogs for this purpose.They gave the dogs large amounts of animal meat and bones to see how much they could eat; defendant determined they could not eat enough to consume three people.Defendant, Justin, and Godman de- cided instead to dismember the bodies, put the pieces in duffel bags, and use a Jet Ski to dump the bags out on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta).They purchased tools and supplies to implement the plan, including...