Attorneys clarify details of Capitola murder trial in multiple hearings – Santa Cruz Sentinel

SANTA CRUZ – Jury selection is scheduled to begin next week in the trial of an El Cerrito man accused of murdering his 61-year-old girlfriend, a Capitola software engineer named Alice “Alyx” Kamakaokalani Herrmann.

Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Nancy de la Peña heard three days of pretrial debate between the prosecution and defense last week, with a fourth hearing scheduled for Monday. As is typical in a criminal trial, attorneys sought rulings on disagreements, including what details of defendant Theobald Lengyel's past conduct, including the charges and allegations that he had previous domestic partners, should be disclosed to the jury.

Defense attorney Annrae Angel asked de la Peña to refrain from making what she considered unfair, biased statements to the jury. She said she expected witnesses to be called who would reveal unflattering details about Lengyel, such as his alleged alcoholism and the fact that he was “often not the nicest person.”

“We don't want the jury to convict him for everything that happened in his life,” Angel said Friday. “It's like we're trying to throw everything bad that happened in Mr. Lengyel's life out into the world.”

Emily Wang, assistant district attorney for Santa Cruz County and co-plaintiff with Conor McCormick, argued that introducing Lengyel's decades-long romantic history helped identify a pattern of behavior. That information would play a role if Lengyel had to testify in his own defense. Testimony about Lengyel's past acts “tend to demonstrate his dishonesty, violence and willingness to do evil or harm, which are consistent with the behaviors that define a person's moral turpitude,” McCormick wrote in a case document last week.