As Theo Lengyel murder trial enters third week, witnesses recall an explosive personality who refused help

Monday marks the start of the third week of the murder trial of Theo Lengyel, the former rocker on trial for the death of Capitola’s Alice “Alix” Herrmann in December 2023. 

Rather than fixate exclusively on the events surrounding Herrmann’s disappearance and death, the first seven days of court hearings saw prosecutors call on numerous friends and family to testify about the personality and sometimes explosive temper of Lengyel. Many of these witness accounts involved events that occurred before Lengyel and Herrmann met. 

Meanwhile, the defense has sought to cast doubt on the credibility of some witness accounts by asking questions about the haziness of old memories, either due to time or intoxication.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys still have to explain how all this testimony, their questions and cross-examinations add up to a coherent narrative. And while more witnesses might be called to the stand, most of the star witnesses whom prosecutors previewed in opening statements have already testified.

Lengyel, 55, erstwhile horns player for the rock band Mr. Bungle from 1985 through 1996, lived in El Cerrito and worked in finance tech for the past few decades. He met Herrmann through work in 2017 and the two began dating soon after. After the disappearance of Herrmann, 61, in December 2023, Lengyel became a person of interest and eventually told police where to find Herrmann’s body within the 2,079-acre Tilden Park in Berkeley.

His jury trial began on Sept. 4, following a lengthy jury selection process. Prosecutors are hoping the jury will agree to convict Lengyel not only of murder, but also of auto theft. Lengyel drove Herrmann’s car in the days after her disappearance and also visited her house in Capitola. Some of the evidence that detectives presented hinted that Lengyel might have even driven Herrmann’s Toyota Highlander to Tilden Park to bury her body.

Lengyel has entered a plea of not guilty to all three charges.

While prosecutors have not clearly revealed their legal strategy, their lines of questioning and witnesses suggest that in addition to presenting physical evidence linking Lengyel to the crime, they are hoping jurors will be compelled by testimony from family and friends that speaks to a “pattern” of disturbing behavior. In opening statements, Assistant District Attorney Conor McCormick described Lengyel as an alcoholic who was prone to“fits of rage.” 

Prosecutors spent several days of the trial calling character witnesses to the stand. These included former neighbors of Lengyel’s, workers who interacted with Lengyel when he was visiting Herrmann’s family in Hawaii, and family members, including his ex-wife. 

The evidence linking Lengyel to the crime

That Lengyel killed Herrmann does not seem to be in dispute, even by Lengyel’s defense attorney, Annrae Angel. 

“The evidence is going to show that [Lengyel] killed her,” Angel said in the defense’s opening statements on Sept. 4. “But also that he loved her.” 

The defense needs to convince jurors that although Lengyel may have killed Herrmann, his act does not rise to the standard of murder in the first degree, the most serious legal category of murder. 

Herrmann, who worked for the finance firm Moody’s in Berkeley and often telecommuted, logged into the virtual private network for her workplace for the final time on Dec. 4. The last day that Herrmann’s phone was active was also Dec. 4. Her Apple Watch recorded her heartbeat up until 11:44 p.m. that day, detectives said. 

After Herrmann disappeared, Lengyel drove to Portland, Oregon, on or around Dec. 8, to visit his brother Jed, whom he’d previously texted, “brace yourself, it’s worse than you think.” Once in Portland, Lengyel left his dog and his truck at his brother’s house, then returned to the Bay Area. 

Back in the East Bay, Lengyel went to the police station and told investigators where to find Herrmann’s body. He also gave his cellphone to police against his lawyer’s advice. 

Police found Herrmann’s body buried in a shallow grave, under a pile of rocks, in the sprawling wilderness of Berkeley’s Tilden Park. There was a piece of rope next to her body. During questioning, Lengyel told Capitola police detective Zackary Currier that he had attempted to hang himself alongside Herrmann, but failed. 

Forensic pathologist Dr. Stephany Fiore of the Santa Cruz County coroner’s office performed an autopsy of Herrmann on Jan. 4. Wild animals had discovered her body so her precise cause of death was hard to determine. Fiore concluded that Herrmann died of “homicide, by unspecified means.” Fiore also noted that Herrmann had a thyroid cartilage injury consistent with strangulation or “neck compression.”

Brendan Kellmann of the Contra Costa Office of the Sheriff testified that he did a forensic examination of Herrmann’s Toyota Highlander, and found “several visible blood stains” inside. 

El Cerrito Police Department detective Michael Olivieri testified that the agency had video recordings showing Lengyel clearly driving Herrmann’s Highlander at the intersection of Roberta Drive and Arlington Boulevard in El Cerrito, adjacent to where Herrmann’s body was found in Tilden Park. The first photo showed him at the intersection at 6:45 p.m. on Dec. 5, 2023; the second showed him there at 11:48 p.m. the same day, driving the opposite direction. Herrmann’s body was found in early January 2024. 

In cross-examining police witnesses, Lengyel’s defense asked questions that imply they are pushing back on the charge that Lengyel using Herrmann’s car constituted car theft. 

Angel asked detectives and other witnesses multiple times if the physical evidence suggested that the two partners often drove each other’s cars or kept things at each other’s homes. Detectives said that Herrmann had mail addressed to her at Lengyel’s house, and also that they each clearly kept clothes at both houses. 

An emphasis on character witnesses

In contrast with the terse, matter-of-fact testimony from detectives and police investigators, the prosecution has spent far more time questioning character witnesses, whose accounts of their interactions with Lengyel are often vaguer, more poorly documented, and more distant in time than police testimony.  

Many of the prosecutions’ witnesses had never even met Herrmann, or were not present for any of the events leading up to or after her death; hence, many of the stories that prosecutors have had witnesses repunctuate do not involve Herrmann at all, and occurred months or even years before her death. 

The lengthiest character witness testimony came from Theo Lengyel’s ex-wife, Joleen Welch, who sat on the witness stand for two consecutive days. Throughout her testimony, Welch was teary, and spoke of struggling to relive traumatic moments. In repeated cross-examination, Welch had several tense exchanges with the defense lawyer. 

Prosecutors hinted in opening statements that Welch, who was married to Lengyel from 2001 through 2017, would testify about Lengyel’s violent and abusive behavior. “She [Welch] knows about his controlling behavior, she knows about his fits of rage, she knows about his alcoholism, she knows how he made her feel isolated,” McCormick said on the first day of the trial. McCormick also described Lengyel as someone who financially controlled Welch: “He would take her wallet, her cellphone, he’d go through her contacts,” he said. 

Welch’s memory of their marriage was of a man who initially charmed her with his “handsome” looks and “beautiful” dog when they met in February 1999, three years after Lengyel’s stint in Mr. Bungle ended.

In the early days, their “marriage was good,” Welch said. They had three children, all born between 2003 and 2008. Lengyel “was a great father of newborn babies” who “far exceeded my expectations,” Welch said. But she went on to describe a husband whose increasing abuse of alcohol turned him into a “violent” and “unpredictable” man. 

Welch recalled an evening during their marriage when she refused sex. The next day, when they were at a San Francisco bakery with their children, Lengyel was hostile toward her. 

Welch testified that Lengyel took her wallet, then bought pastries for the children but not for her. “Oh, Momma doesn’t get pastries. Momma’s been naughty,” Lengyel said, according to Welch. 

Welch also described several instances in which Lengyel threatened violence, though did not actually strike her, including one day when he jabbed their table with a knife. Welch also recalled the one instance that he did strike her, which was in the evening following a San Francisco Giants game in 2015. 

Using a hand-drawn blueprint of their home in El Cerrito as a visual reference, Welch described the sequence of events in which an intoxicated Lengyel smashed in a window, entered the house, shoved her against the wall and punched her. At some point, Lengyel also “put his hands around [her] neck,” though after cross-examination Welch had some confusion recalling whether this occurred on the couch with him looming over her, or while she was standing. 

The defense attorney questioned Welch about the specifics of where and how Lengyel put his hands “on” or “near” her neck, a line of inquiry that led to Welch growing distressed on the witness stand. Lengyel’s lawyer asked Welch to clarify “how long” his hands were there.

“I don’t remember how long, but it wasn’t that long,” Welch countered. 

“So it was seconds?” Angel asked. 

“It could have been seconds. What I remember is that it was a quick thing, and then at that point, he backed off,” Welch replied. 

Angel’s inquiries seemingly threw into question the accuracy of Welch’s memory of the 2015 incident.

Angel also pushed Welch for details about their relationship, during which Welch admitted that she had physically struck Lengyel on two occasions during their marriage; both times, Lengyel did not retaliate, she said.

Two other family members were also called to testify about Lengyel’s behavior over the years: his sister, Tess Lengyel, and his niece, Ariana Frances Allgeier. 

Allgeier, a therapist, testified that Lengyel had confided in her about the time that he punched Welch in the stomach. “If she stays with me, I don’t know if I’ll be more disappointed in her or disappointed in me,” Allgeier recalled him telling her. 

Allgeier described a relationship with her uncle that had deteriorated over the years to the point of estrangement. Tess Lengyel, too, said she and other relatives had encouraged Lengyel to seek therapy for his anger problems and alcohol abuse.

“I wanted to protect the family from his aggressive and abusive behavior,” Tess Lengyel said. She said that she and other family members “did send him resources, but he adamantly refused, and said that those were useless and he didn’t believe in getting therapy and he didn’t believe in getting help.”

Allgeier, Tess Lengyel and Welch all testified about a tense exchange at a family Thanksgiving in Eureka in 2016, and in which between 15 and 20 family members were present. At dinner, Lengyel allegedly got into a yelling match with his stepfather that resulted in Tess Lengyel intervening by sitting between them, at which point Tess alleged he shoved her and she fell to the floor in her chair. 

Tess Lengyel described her attempts to continue a relationship with her brother following this, though she says his communications grew increasingly rude. “He would call in the middle of the night at very late hours,” his sister said. “If I answered, he sounded drunk and he would say some things that were very rude and vulgar.” That included calling her a “stupid b—h” and a “whore,” she said. 

Tess Lengyel obtained a restraining order against her brother in October 2017, and stopped speaking to him. 

Prosecutors also invited an El Cerrito neighbor of Lengyel, Arthur Swislocki, to testify about their interactions. Swislocki, a semi-retired physician, told of an odd incident in 2023 in which Lengyel came over to his house late at night reeking of alcohol and bullied Swislocki into playing music with him, repeatedly saying “don’t be a c–t” when he refused. Lengyel and Swislocki played saxophone and guitar, respectively, on his porch for two hours, he testified. This was the first and last time they would ever have a jam session, Swislocki said. 

Disturbing interactions

In the sixth and seventh days of the trial, prosecutors called witnesses to the stand who had worked for Herrmann’s ailing father in Hana, Hawaii. 

Misty Poole, a former caretaker for Herrmann’s father, says she witnessed Herrmann upset after getting into a fight with Lengyel at Herrmann’s family home in Hana. Poole described her as “crying” and “shaky,” and said she was looking out of the windows of her father’s house to see if Lengyel was outside. In another instance, Poole said Herrmann told her that Lengyel had threatened to burn the house down. 

Poole said that she was of the opinion that Herrmann was in an abusive relationship. 

Joshua Perry, a native Hawaiian who lived in a unit owned by Herrmann’s father, recalled walking down the street outside their house when he saw a man who fit Lengyel’s description “throwing punches” at the open window of a car pulling out of the driveway which Herrmann was driving. The punches did not make contact with anyone, but were clearly threatening. Perry approached and yelled, which made the man stop. 

Because Perry is now legally blind following a recent stroke, he was not able to identify the defendant in court directly.

An altered physical appearance — and an expert witnesses

Herrmann’s Capitola neighbor, Christine Sieburg, and Swislocki were asked by prosecutors about Lengyel’s physical appearance after Dec. 4. Both mentioned being surprised that Lengyel had shaved both his head and his beard.  

Prosecutors’ interest in Lengyel’s changed appearance could be part of a legal strategy to establish what is known as “consciousness of guilt,” the idea that a criminal changed their appearance to hide their guilt and/or evade law enforcement. 

However, the defense attorney asked several witnesses if they recalled that Lengyel typically shaved his face and/or head as an act of respect after people close to him passed away, as a way of mourning. Welch recalled that she remembered he shaved his beard and head after his father died in 2003. 

Prosecutors also called one expert witness, Sheree Goldman, who holds a nurse practitioner doctorate, to the stand. Goldman gave a presentation on intimate partner violence to the court.

Goldman noted that one in five women who die by homicide are killed by their intimate partners. She also said that women who survive strangulation by a partner are 750% more likely to eventually die of homicide at their hands. 

Goldman then went over in detail the ways that strangulation can lead to death, detailing the anatomy of the neck. 

The trial will continue on Monday at 9 a.m. at Santa Cruz County Superior Court.

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