Elderly 'Ladies' Convicted in Murder Case

LOS ANGELES (April 17) - A 75-year-old woman was convicted Thursday of murdering a homeless man to collect life insurance, but the jury said it was deadlocked on another murder charge and a conspiracy count.

The judge ordered more deliberations in an effort to conclude a trial that has spun a bizarre tale of a murder-for-profit scheme carried out by two elderly women.

Olga Rutterschmidt was convicted of the first-degree murder of Kenneth McDavid, 50, a day after she was found guilty of conspiring to murder him for financial gain. Her 77-year-old co-defendant, Helen Golay, was convicted Wednesday of murdering McDavid and Paul Vados, 73, and counts of conspiracy in both killings.

Without saying which way it was leaning, the jury said it was deadlocked 11-1 on the charge that Rutterschmidt murdered Vados and 10-2 on conspiracy to murder him for financial gain.

Superior Court Judge David Wesley ordered jurors to return Monday to try to decide the remaining counts. Those deliberations will have to start from scratch because the judge replaced a juror who told the court he had preplanned travel and could not serve any longer.

The verdicts so far carry life prison terms without possibility of parole for both women. Prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty.

Thursday's verdict came after the jury heard a second round of closing arguments it requested in an effort to decide the last three counts against Rutterschmidt.

Deputy District Attorney Truc Do told jurors that Rutterschmidt was far from being Golay's pawn.

She was "fully capable of heading this scheme on her own," Do said. "... Golay is not the mastermind of this scheme. They are 50-50 partners."

Rutterschmidt's attorney Michael Sklar argued that prosecutors had not proven that Rutterschmidt had the specific intent to murder anyone.

"What we know is that by Ms. Rutterschmidt's actions, she entered a conspiracy to commit insurance fraud," he said. "On what do the people rely to say it went further than that? They rely on Helen Golay's actions."

He suggested that Rutterschmidt can't be convicted judging by the acts of her co-defendant alone.

Do said jurors should not believe the defense contention that Rutterschmidt paid rent and bought food for Vados and McDavid because she cared for them.

In the case of Vados, who died in 1999, Rutterschmidt told others she was his daughter or his cousin and noted that both were refugees from Hungary. But Do said it was all a ruse, as were her tears when Vados died.

"Is she capable of feigning grief and hurt?" the prosecutor asked. "Of course she is."

Vados and McDavid were run over by cars in dark alleys, incidents that authorities said were staged to look like hit-and-run accidents. The women collected $2.8 million on insurance policies they bought for the men.

They were arrested in 2005 after an investigation into McDavid's death earlier that year led to a link with the then-unsolved Vados killing.

Do portrayed Rutterschmidt as a cold-hearted killer who bought a car to use as a murder weapon, kept it in waiting for a year and a half and all the while kept visiting McDavid.

"She looked this man in the eye and knew she was going to kill him to collect $3.7 million," said Do. "She not only knew she was going to kill him but she knew exactly how."

Do told jurors that by convicting Rutterschmidt of conspiracy in McDavid's killing they had already accepted that she was a murderer. The prosecutor played for the panel again an excerpt from a surreptitiously videotaped conversation between the women in a jail lockup after their arrest.

She noted that Rutterschmidt was talking then about how she planned to set up a business in Canada and told Golay it would be "the same thing."

"She's talking about murder to collect life insurance benefits," said Do. "She's got two dead bodies and has collected close to a million dollars and is talking about a new business with the same setup."

Before jurors resumed their deliberations, Rutterschmidt's attorney suggested that the panelists could rescind any of the verdicts already reached. The judge scheduled Golay to be sentenced on June 24. He said that if the jury changed its verdict in any way, he could change the date.