Murder trial begins for former Mr. Bungle musician Theo Lengyel in death of Capitola’s Alyx Herrmann

The murder trial in the death of Capitola resident Alice “Alyx” Herrmann began Wednesday in Santa Cruz County Superior Court, with the prosecution and defense painting sharply different pictures of Herrmann’s boyfriend, defendant Theobald “Theo” Lengyel.

In his opening statement to jurors, Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Conor McCormick depicted Lengyel as a violent, unrepentant alcoholic whose disposition made him likely to commit murder.

“Alice’s death was actually the culmination of not just physical, but mental and emotional abuse as well,” McCormick told the court. 

In her opening statement, Lengyel’s defense lawyer, Annrae Angel, did not deny that Lengyel killed Herrmann, but pushed back against the notion that Herrmann’s death constituted murder.

“The evidence is going to show that [Lengyel] killed her,” Angel said. “But also that he loved her.” 

Lengyel, of El Cerrito, is accused of killing Herrmann in December 2023, then burying her body in the recesses of the 2,079-acre Tilden Park in Berkeley. Lengyel, 55, did not deny that he buried Herrmann’s body after killing her, and several weeks after her death called police to tell them where to find her.

The case drew national attention, largely because of Lengyel’s status as an early member of the popular jazz-rock band Mr. Bungle, for whom he played clarinet and saxophone from 1985 through 1996.

Herrmann was a strong presence in the Santa Cruz community, and is remembered by locals as a Renaissance woman, a musician and an athlete. During the first day of the trial, some observers in the gallery wore T-shirts bearing the logo of Outrigger Santa Cruz, the recreational canoe paddling group of which Herrmann was a member.

The trial began Wednesday afternoon immediately after jury selection concluded and is expected to continue for weeks as prosecutors call in a cavalcade of character witnesses. 

Opening statements from both sides shed light on the relationship between Lengyel and Herrmann. 

The two met in 2017 as colleagues while working at a financial startup. At the time, Lengyel was finalizing a divorce from his previous partner, Joleen Welch, whom he married in 2000 and with whom he had three children.

Lengyel and Herrmann worked together at the startup for a few years before they were both laid off in 2019, Angel said. Herrmann found a new job, but Lengyel “stayed unemployed,” and Herrmann “started to support him  — pay his bills, pay his mortgage, pay his taxes, pay for everything,” she continued.

The defense attorney told the jury about writings and journal entries of Herrmann’s in which she expressed that she was “not happy with that.” “She was being generous and helpful but wanted a note, a promise to be paid back when [Lengyel’s] divorce sorted itself out.”

By early December 2023, just days before Herrmann died, Angel said Herrmann was receiving notifications that Lengyel’s El Cerrito house was in foreclosure because payments from their joint account weren’t being made.

Prosecutors described upcoming testimony from witnesses who had observed Lengyel’s angry outbursts toward Herrmann, in particular his ex-wife, Welch. 

Court records from Contra Costa County show that Welch filed for a domestic violence restraining order against Lengyel in November 2017, which was granted.

“She 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. “He would take her wallet, her cellphone, he’d go through her contacts.” 

“Mr. Lengyel is not somebody who liked to be told ‘no,’” he added.

Prosecutors described another witness, a woman who worked as a caretaker for Herrmann’s ailing father, who observed interactions between Herrmann and Lengyel in September and October 2023. 

The caretaker allegedly told Herrmann, “Alice, you are in an abusive relationship,” according to McCormick.“[She] was met with serious excuses until Alice eventually conceded, ‘I know I am, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know how to leave,’” he added.

The events leading up to and following Herrmann’s death were elucidated by both opening statements. As at the pre-trial hearing in June, during which detectives and the coroner testified in brief, the defense attorney did not dispute the basic facts nor timeline. As prosecutors explained, forensic evidence, much of it digital, attested to a general order of events that neither party disputed. 

Herrmann was last seen by someone other than Lengyel on Dec. 3, 2023. Dec. 4 was the last time her phone was active. On that evening, her Apple Watch recorded her heartbeat up until 11:44 p.m., when “it no longer recorded a heartbeat,” McCormick told the jury. 

Lengyel was spotted in Capitola a few days later, on Dec. 6, by one of Herrmann’s neighbors, who was surprised to see him newly beardless and with his head shaved. 

Digital forensic analysis of Lengyel’s phone revealed that on Dec. 8, he studied a digital map of Berkeley’s Tilden Park and zoomed in on the location where Herrmann’s body was later found on Jan. 2, 2024. On Dec. 8, Lengyel also sent a text message to his brother which read: “Brace yourself, it’s worse than you think.” 

Prosecutors projected a visual timeline of these events on the court’s TV screen to help jurors follow along. 

Lengyel’s defense attorney argued that while her client admitted to killing Hermann, she did not think that it rose to the status of murder. “He is not guilty of murder because he did not have the proper state of mind to murder,” Angel told jurors. 

Angel also pushed back on the prosecution’s narrative that Lengyel was a violent, irredeemable man. She mentioned his compassion for his dog and that his ex-wife would agree that he was a good father to his three children. She also emphasized some of the positive aspects of Lengyel and Herrmann’s relationship — in particular their love of crosswords and music.

The jury trial is scheduled to continue with witness testimony on Thursday at 10 a.m.

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