Calif. Women Get Life for Insurance Murders

Two California women convicted of befriending homeless men, then murdering them to collect $2.8 million in life insurance, were sent to prison this week for the remainder of their lives by a judge who told the defendants they sacrificed the victims on “altars of greed.”

Helen Louise Golay, 77, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, sat impassively as Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Wesley sentenced each to two consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He also sentenced each of the women to two 25-year-to-life sentences for conspiracy to commit murder for financial gain. Those sentences were stayed.

The judge noted that probation officers in reports on both women said they had “no conscience and they are a serious threat to the community.”

“This is the final chapter for these defendants, who will spend the rest of their days in prison for the killings that were spawned out of greed,” said District Attorney Steve Cooley in a prepared statement. “Justice has been served in the murders of these two victims.”

After imposing sentence, Wesley told the defendants that victims Kenneth McDavid and Paul Vados “needed only food, water and shelter. They needed a helping hand…Instead these unfortunate men were sacrificed on your altars of greed.”

Both women were convicted by a jury of killing Vados, 73, on Nov. 8, 1999. He was run over by an automobile in an alley in Westwood. It was a hit-and-run killing that went unsolved until the June 21, 2005, murder of McDavid, 50. He was run over by an automobile in an alley in Hollywood.

The defendants provided housing for both victims prior to their deaths. They applied for dozens of insurance policies in the men’s names and were involved in activities relating to the victims after the men were killed.

Wesley imposed sentenced after denying a defense motion for a new trial for Golay. He also heard impact statements from Sandra Salman, McDavid’s sister, and Stella Vados, daughter of the eldest victim.

Also speaking was the attorney for both women, Gloria Allred, who said that Stella Vados discovered that the defendants buried her father in an unmarked pauper’s grave. She thanked the District Attorney for helping move Vados’s remains so he “could finally have his wish and be buried next to his beloved wife at Forest Lawn.”