And Then She Killed Him (19 page)
The newspapers related further about Miriam forging Alan’s checks and keeping all bank representatives from contacting him. They also went into the matter about the greeting card found under the doormat, which stated that Miriam had better run, or she would be next. And, of course, Miriam had bought that card at a local market.
There was a lot of circumstantial evidence against Miriam, but even the affidavit admitted that no gun had been found. Instead, there was a paragraph stating:
Alan Helmick likely owned a .25 caliber pistol which could have fired that bullet that killed him. A handgun hasn’t been recovered in the investigation.
Alan Helmick likely owned a .25 caliber pistol which could have fired that bullet that killed him. A handgun hasn’t been recovered in the investigation.
C
HAPTER 29
HAPTER 29
E
XPERTISE
XPERTISE
There was a lot of circumstantial evidence that Miriam had murdered Alan Helmick to cover up the fact that she had been forging his checks and raiding his bank accounts, but there was no concrete evidence that she had murdered him. No confession, no videotape of the act, no gunshot residue traced to her, not even a murder weapon. The prosecution was going to have to convince twelve jurors that she had committed first-degree murder for financial gain. And to do so, they were going to have to convince the same jurors that their list of expert witnesses knew exactly what they were talking about.
To this end, the prosecutors started collecting a list of some of the best in the business. They began with criminal investigator personnel, not unlike the types made so recognizable on the popular television show
CSI.
One of these was Cynthia Kramer, of the Colorado Department of Public Safety (CDPS). Her main discipline was forensic biology, which dealt with DNA and blood, and she was also a Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) administrator. On her path to being a Level II investigator, Kramer’s education included a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry from Colorado State University in 1996, and graduate credits in molecular, cellular and developmental endocrinology from the University of Colorado in 1999.
CSI.
One of these was Cynthia Kramer, of the Colorado Department of Public Safety (CDPS). Her main discipline was forensic biology, which dealt with DNA and blood, and she was also a Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) administrator. On her path to being a Level II investigator, Kramer’s education included a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry from Colorado State University in 1996, and graduate credits in molecular, cellular and developmental endocrinology from the University of Colorado in 1999.
Kramer’s list of seminars and training had also been vast and varied: everything from Gene Mapper Training, to Shooting Scene Investigation and Reconstruction, to Bloodstain Pattern Analysis. She’d attended national conferences at the FBI on six occasions and had testified in more than a dozen major trials in Colorado.
Shawn West, of CDPS, was just as educated and trained in his field, which mainly dealt with controlled substances. West had received a Bachelor of Science at the University of Colorado and a Master of Science in forensic science–criminalistics from the University of Central Oklahoma. While his main area of expertise dealt with drugs, both legal and illegal, West also had attended various training conferences. These were as disparate as Fire Debris Analysis Training, Gunshot Residue Analysis, Microscopic Hair Analysis, and Fire Debris Analysis. He’d even taken a course called “How Not to Bomb in Court.” In other words, how to stand up to grilling by a defense attorney.
Just as qualified was Barry Shearer, of CDPS. And Shearer was the most international of the lot. Shearer had received a Bachelor of Science in chemistry at the University of Leicester in England and a Master of Science at King’s College London. Shearer’s training had included everything from Secondary and Tertiary Glass Transfer to Use of Statistics in Forensic Science. Shearer had been an expert witness over thirty times in state and federal courts.
Covering the area of hair, fibers, and biological residue for CDPS would be Sheri Murphy. She had a Bachelor of Science from Phillips University and extensive training in Fiber Analysis, Gene Mapping, Hair Analysis and even something called Clandestine Labs Syntheses. For courtroom experience, she wrote down on her reference sheet:
Testified numerous times in several district courts in the states of Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado in the areas of controlled dangerous substances, serology, hairs and fibers and trace evidence.
Testified numerous times in several district courts in the states of Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado in the areas of controlled dangerous substances, serology, hairs and fibers and trace evidence.
The prosecution was going to be covering a lot of bases in the upcoming trial, not just with physical evidence but with psychological profiling as well. And one part of that angle was going to be Special Agent Robert Morton, of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. As Morton noted in his reference:
NCAVC serves as a resource for federal, state and local law enforcement officials in the investigation of bizarre, unusual and repetitive crimes, including serial murder, homicide cases, child abductions, kidnappings and terrorism.
Morton noted that he had been consulted by law enforcement agencies in hundreds of these types of cases.
NCAVC serves as a resource for federal, state and local law enforcement officials in the investigation of bizarre, unusual and repetitive crimes, including serial murder, homicide cases, child abductions, kidnappings and terrorism.
Morton noted that he had been consulted by law enforcement agencies in hundreds of these types of cases.
Agent Morton stated that he was actively involved with research on serial murder and sexually motivated homicides. He was also the primary editor on the FBI Serial Murder Monograph. By 2009, he’d been a senior crime scene analyst for over ten years.
Even a criminal investigator from the United States Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory (USACIL) was going to be called upon. This was Shauna Steffan, who was a physical scientist with a Master of Science in forensic sciences from the University of New Haven, in Connecticut. Steffan was skilled in Evidence Photography, Crime Scene Reconstruction and Fingerprint Identification. She had even taught courses in Crime Scene Search and Preservation for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
The most exotic and specialized member of the group was Lieutenant Tracy Harpster, of the Moraine Police Department (Moraine PD) in Ohio. Harpster specialized in 911 homicide calls. In that capacity, Harpster taught courses to law enforcement agencies around the country about people calling 911 and reporting incidents as robberies and suicides—when, in actuality, the person calling in had committed homicide. And that is exactly what the prosecution was alleging with Miriam Helmick. Harpster had even been published on this subject, with titles such as “The Nature of 911 Homicide Calls to Identify Indicators of Innocence and Guilt” and “Is the Caller a Killer?”
MCSO had recently dealt with the Michael Blagg case, where Michael called a 911 operator about a supposed home invasion when he returned home from work and found his wife and daughter missing. As with Miriam’s call to a 911 operator, Michael did not act like the usual person who was faced with similar circumstances. There were times he seemed to be acting.
And of the supposed robbery in the Blagg home, it was determined that Michael Blagg had pretended that a break-in had occurred and his wife and daughter ended up missing. Blagg, however, did not know how to stage a robbery to make it look convincing. As far as the prosecution in Miriam’s case went, they believed the same thing had occurred at the Helmick residence in Whitewater. They conjectured that Miriam had opened a few drawers, got rid of a few pieces of jewelry, and knocked over a wastepaper basket.
Just what Miriam’s state of mind was in 2009 as she went through the pretrial process was best ascertained by a recorded phone call she made. It was to her brother in Florida. A recorded voice came on the line stating, “Hello, this is a collect call from Miriam, an inmate at Mesa County Jail. This call is subject to recording and monitoring.”
Miriam asked how her brother was, and he said he was doing fine. Then Miriam said that she was sorry it was so late at night, Florida time, but it was the only time she was able to make a phone call. Miriam began by saying, “I wanted to let you know that we had our pretrial hearing yesterday. And
48 Hours
was there. They’re doing something on Sunday. It looks really, really, really bad [about me]. But it’s not really bad (what’s occurring in court). In fact, we’re optimistic.”
48 Hours
was there. They’re doing something on Sunday. It looks really, really, really bad [about me]. But it’s not really bad (what’s occurring in court). In fact, we’re optimistic.”
To all of Miriam’s conversation, her brother barely said a word, except to say “Um-hmm,” or “Okay.” Miriam went on, “We’re extremely optimistic because my attorney said something about me leaving here (jail) by Christmas. Our trial’s not until November. We put it off to November because there’s some work we have to do. The main thing that we did Friday was to do fact-finding, which we really did well. There’s a lot to be desired from the sheriff ’s office here.
“I wanted you to see if you can call Chris and let him know there’s nothing I can do about
48 Hours
doing this thing. It’s ugly! And there’s some stuff in there you would not believe! We’re still trying to figure out . . . Well, it sounds worse than it is. And, um, we can’t tip our hand.
48 Hours
doing this thing. It’s ugly! And there’s some stuff in there you would not believe! We’re still trying to figure out . . . Well, it sounds worse than it is. And, um, we can’t tip our hand.
“I can say, they (
48 Hours)
did ask the detective when they first started looking at me. And he pretty much said they never looked at anyone else. Part of the evidence—they (Miriam’s defense team) are going to try to get thrown out. There were things that really made my attorney optimistic. He told me, ‘Don’t read the newspaper.’ It will just depress me. ‘I want you to stay focused. We have a lot of work to do. And, hopefully, you’ll be out of here by Christmas.’”
48 Hours)
did ask the detective when they first started looking at me. And he pretty much said they never looked at anyone else. Part of the evidence—they (Miriam’s defense team) are going to try to get thrown out. There were things that really made my attorney optimistic. He told me, ‘Don’t read the newspaper.’ It will just depress me. ‘I want you to stay focused. We have a lot of work to do. And, hopefully, you’ll be out of here by Christmas.’”
Miriam wondered if the
48 Hours
segment would not be on until her brother and his family got out of church on Sunday evening. He thought it would still be on when they returned home.
48 Hours
segment would not be on until her brother and his family got out of church on Sunday evening. He thought it would still be on when they returned home.
Miriam continued, “The way they brought it (the story) out, well, because we didn’t do objections, they were able to bring it out any way they wanted. I was furious. I wanted to jump up and down! But my lawyers told me to have a poker face the whole time.”
Her brother said one of the people on Miriam’s defense team had called him, and that it was a woman. Miriam replied, “Yeah, she’s really a sweet lady. She’s a good detective. She’s the [attorney’s] investigator. I’ll put it this way. I can tell you that Portia got on the stand and lied.” (This had happened at a pretrial hearing.)
Then Miriam was very excited about the next bit of news. “The gunshot residue test came back. Nothing! Absolutely nothing! So they can’t place me there (at the murder scene). I’m only telling you stuff that can be verified. Our neighbor saw Alan out at the barn at eight
A.M.
I was gone by eight-thirty.”
A.M.
I was gone by eight-thirty.”
Her brother said he’d heard it was a weak case, and Miriam replied, “It’s a very weak case. After Friday’s hearing, I was walking on air. When the newspaper came out with a story—it still couldn’t pull me down.
“I need to do more outside exercise. Keep my muscles in shape. When I leave here, I don’t want to be an old woman. Anyway, I’ve decided I’m going to take advantage of this
48 Hours
thing. Whoever the highest bidder is, I’ll give them an interview at the end, and that [money] will go to Mother and Daddy. And then I’ll write whatever I need to write, book-wise or whatever. And that goes to paying back everybody that needs to be paid. And giving Chris school money.”
48 Hours
thing. Whoever the highest bidder is, I’ll give them an interview at the end, and that [money] will go to Mother and Daddy. And then I’ll write whatever I need to write, book-wise or whatever. And that goes to paying back everybody that needs to be paid. And giving Chris school money.”
Miriam then said, “They (the police) wouldn’t give me back my ID. I couldn’t apply for welfare or Social Security or even get an old 401(k). I couldn’t get my driver’s license.”
And then switching gears very quickly, she declared, “They (Miriam’s lawyers) are going to put me on the stand. Because they say a lot of the things have to be explained. And they figure I’m the one to explain them, because I’m the one who knows them best.”
After that, her brother and Miriam talked for a while about his children. But Miriam really wanted to get back to what concerned her most, her present situation. “If Chris watches, or anybody watches . . . I’m really concerned about what he would see [on the show] and what he would say. I just want to get this over with.”
Once again, her brother said that the Mesa County detective who came to Florida did not impress him. Miriam chimed in and said, “Well, they haven’t impressed me, either.”
Her brother added that a detective wanted to meet him at work to talk about Miriam. He finally said that they could meet for lunch near his place of work. He waited fifteen minutes there, at the appointed time, and then the detective said that he couldn’t make it. The detective called and said he had been detained. Miriam’s brother thought this attitude was very unprofessional.
Miriam replied, “I know what you’re talking about. He’s the one who . . . Well, we’ve had some interesting dealings with him.”
Miriam’s brother may not have been impressed with the MCSO detectives, and Miriam was unimpressed as well. They might have been more impressed, however, if they’d known just how hard the detectives had been working on the case, and how much information they already had.
C
HAPTER 30
HAPTER 30
A M
OVIE AND A
C
AR
F
IRE
OVIE AND A
C
AR
F
IRE
By the time of Miriam’s second phone call to her brother from the Mesa County Jail, she was not as optimistic as she had been on the first phone call. And once again, Miriam did most of the talking. She began by saying, “Sorry I didn’t call earlier. Have you kept in touch with my attorney?”
Her brother replied that he hadn’t talked to Steve Colvin in a while. Miriam continued, “Things are sort of happening here. We have a bunch of motions coming up and I wrote you about the Barbara Watts thing. And well . . . nobody has ever read me my rights. Not ever in Florida. So anything they got during that time can’t be used.” (This allegation of a Miranda violation was according to Miriam.)
“And, um, going back to the situation in Delta, the fibers they were trying to hang me on didn’t match. Nothing of the tests they’ve done have come back their way. I didn’t think they would.” (Perhaps there had been some clothing fibers near the wick, which Miriam was referencing.)
Her brother said, “Well, you’ve got to jump through hoops.”
Miriam agreed, and then replied, “The wheels of justice don’t move fast like you see on TV. But my attorney seems to be very pleased with the motions.
Nightline
has been in contact with me. Because they’re getting things they know are wrong. Delta didn’t have a case (against me) because Alan told them I was with him the whole time. They conjured up their stuff.
Nightline
has been in contact with me. Because they’re getting things they know are wrong. Delta didn’t have a case (against me) because Alan told them I was with him the whole time. They conjured up their stuff.
“I’m starting my second novel. That’s the honest truth.” Miriam laughed aloud. “I’ve always wanted to write. When they didn’t replace the books here after five months . . . I read every single one of them about four times. Finally I did what I should have done when I was younger. Sit down and write my own novel. I did it. And it was fun. I mean there’s more to be done. Editing and things like that. It was written by hand, so it needs to be typed up.
“It kept me busy for a month. And I’ve got even more months before, well, dismissing this thing. Because when they arrested me . . . The minute they thought I was a suspect, and started digging through garbage cans . . . Well, that’s why they considered me a suspect.
“Even when Chris was there, they lied to me and told me they wanted me to give them some stuff. The autopsy report showed Alan had such bad heart disease . . . but the family tried to get me for poisoning. The autopsy showed that his heart was so bad he shouldn’t have been alive. But they arrested me on that one, anyway.” (Miriam was referring to the poisoning charge.) “That was part of their arrest warrant. Smells fishy, doesn’t it?”
Her brother asked, “If they did everything bogus, do you have the right to sue them?”
Miriam responded, “Oh, I’ve already got that started. I can use the attorneys here or I can use the ACLU. Because they held my driver’s license, birth certificate, everything that I had that defined me as a citizen. They held those and wouldn’t give them back to me, even after repeated requests.
“So I had to go to other means. When I went to Florida, I couldn’t get a license. And I couldn’t get a copy of my birth certificate because I didn’t have any valid ID. And they were strict about it, because I wanted Chris to go get it. And I called them, and they said he couldn’t. It had to be me, or it had to be an attorney who had a copy of my valid ID. Which wasn’t happening!
“I went through all the boxes in the storage facility to see if I could find anything.” (This was possibly in Jacksonville, Florida.) “And I was about to send off for a certified copy of my driver’s license when they arrested me. There’s a lot of fishy stuff!”
Then Miriam and her brother talked about his family for a while, especially his kids’ activities, but she was clearly eager to get back to her current travails.
Miriam said, “My attorney told Chris if he ever had any messages for me to e-mail them, so I would get them. But he never did. But I’m glad he’s doing okay. I just wanted to let you know what’s going on here. Actually, I hardly know what’s going on except what I read in the newspaper.”
Her brother said, “I figure it will all work out okay.”
Miriam laughed and said, “Well, you’re not the one sittin’ here.”
He agreed about that.
Miriam added, “I wouldn’t wish it on anybody, but I think it will be all right. I think that the biggest thing is, I never said a word to anybody about anything. The DA doesn’t have enough stuff. They didn’t even turn on Alan’s computer to see that he didn’t have Internet access for two months. He’d been using mine for everything.” (This statement carried the implication that Alan had looked up about lethal doses of medication on the Internet.)
Miriam then asked, “Did you see Daddy?” Her brother said that he had done so the previous night. Miriam added, “Tell him . . . Well, don’t tell him anything. I’m not allowed to communicate with him.”
Truly surprised at this, her brother asked, “Why’s that?”
Miriam answered, “Because he’s on the DA’s witness list.”
“Oh, really!” her brother responded.
Miriam replied, “I found out about it through the newspaper here, but I don’t know if it’s true. Well, whether I get out of here or not, I want to write the book. Bye.”
It wasn’t until May 2009 that a preliminary hearing was held in the Mesa County District Court as to whether there was enough evidence to go to trial. ADA Rich Tuttle questioned witnesses, presented photos, financial statements, and CBI evidence. Miriam’s defense lawyers cross-examined the witnesses, but they did not reveal what their upcoming arguments would be.
Outside the courtroom, Tuttle told a reporter for Channel 11 News, “It’s really a kind of one-sided show, where the prosecution has the burden of making a standard, and that’s what the judge will rule on is whether we have put on sufficient evidence for the case to go to a jury trial.”
Most of the evidence Tuttle presented was already notated in investigators’ reports, but a few new things did crop up. One was that an autopsy report showed that Alan Helmick died of a gunshot wound to the head sometime between 3:15
A.M.
and 12:15
P.M.
on June 10, 2008. If he had been murdered at any time before Miriam left the house, supposedly around eight in the morning, then, of course, she must have been the shooter. If it occurred after she left, then there must have been another gunman, as she and her attorneys claimed. That the autopsy report could not pin down the time in a more exact manner left this question wide open.
and 12:15
P.M.
on June 10, 2008. If he had been murdered at any time before Miriam left the house, supposedly around eight in the morning, then, of course, she must have been the shooter. If it occurred after she left, then there must have been another gunman, as she and her attorneys claimed. That the autopsy report could not pin down the time in a more exact manner left this question wide open.
As far as the gunshot residue test went, there had been no GSR on Miriam’s hands, body, or clothing, but there had been a small particle of GSR on the steering wheel of the car she had been driving on June 10, 2008. The prosecution declared this was proof that she had fired a gun on the morning of June 10. The defense claimed anyone could have fired a gun and then touched the steering wheel of the car. Or Miriam could have fired a gun preceding Alan’s death, and it would have nothing to do with his murder.
And for the first time, MCSO investigators revealed there had been one other suspect that they had looked at in the investigation. It was an individual who was an acquaintance of Miriam’s who lived in Boulder, Colorado. Investigators testified that this person had an alibi and was cleared of being a suspect. Just who that person was, they did not say.
Another interesting twist to the case was a contention by MCSO investigators that someone in the Helmick home on April 26, 2008, had rented the movie
No Country for Old Men.
Tuttle stated, “The movie, rented via Dish Network, includes a scene in which actor Javier Bardem’s character places an article of clothing in the gas tank of a car, lights it, and walks away into a pharmacy before the car explodes.”
No Country for Old Men.
Tuttle stated, “The movie, rented via Dish Network, includes a scene in which actor Javier Bardem’s character places an article of clothing in the gas tank of a car, lights it, and walks away into a pharmacy before the car explodes.”
Then Tuttle pointed out that four days after that movie rental, a rope-type wick was placed into the gas tank of a car Alan Helmick was sitting in, and the wick was set on fire. That the car didn’t explode was a miracle. And the main suspect in that car fire was Miriam Helmick. Less than two months after the car fire incident, Alan Helmick was shot to death in his own home.
In the end, district judge Valerie Robison ruled that there was enough evidence to go forward to a jury trial.
A few days later, Judge Robison was asked to make a ruling on whether evidence about the death of Miriam’s first husband, Jack Giles, would be heard by jurors in the upcoming trial.
ADA Tuttle contended that the death of Jack Giles was not a suicide, but rather was an instance of where Miriam had shot him to death and then made it look like a suicide.
Hebenstreit noted that Jack Giles was left-handed, but he was found clutching a revolver in his right hand, with his arm lying across his chest. Jack’s right thumb was in the gun’s trigger guard.
Tuttle added to the judge, “According to law enforcement authorities who routinely investigate suicides, this is an extremely unorthodox, if not extremely difficult, way to commit suicide.”
Judge Robison, however, responded, “Little, if anything, other than argument has been presented to indicate the defendant (Miriam Helmick) may have contributed to the death of Mr. Giles, or as asserted by the people that she murdered Jack Giles. Based upon all the evidence before the court, the court does not find by preponderance of the evidence that Mr. Giles was murdered and that the defendant committed the crime.”
The jury in the upcoming trial for the murder of Alan Helmick would not hear anything about the death of Miriam’s first husband, Jack.
By November 9, 2009, both the prosecution and the defense began questioning potential jurors. The parking lot across the street was filled with vehicles of the more than four hundred potential jurors who were going through voir dire. Security was tight, as court officers escorted the potential jurors through the security area and on to elevators to the actual courtroom. And as the
Daily Sentinel
noted,
Nearly all of the hundreds of jurors have heard at least snippets, either through news reports or gossipy chatter among neighbors, about the allegations against 52-year-old Miriam Helmick of Whitewater.
Daily Sentinel
noted,
Nearly all of the hundreds of jurors have heard at least snippets, either through news reports or gossipy chatter among neighbors, about the allegations against 52-year-old Miriam Helmick of Whitewater.
The
Daily Sentinel
related that this was the area’s biggest trial since Michael Blagg had been found guilty of murdering his wife, Jennifer, in 2004. Blagg had received a life sentence in that trial.
Daily Sentinel
related that this was the area’s biggest trial since Michael Blagg had been found guilty of murdering his wife, Jennifer, in 2004. Blagg had received a life sentence in that trial.
Some of the questions asked of potential jurors, who had made the first cut, were about whether they had heard anything new about the case over the previous week, and whether it would be too much of a hardship to sit on a jury for four to five weeks. Another question was whether they could put out of their minds anything they had heard or read about the case, and only base their decisions on what evidence was presented in an actual trial.
Steve Colvin, the office head of the Grand Junction branch of the Colorado State Public Defenders, asked one prospective juror about the fact that she’d heard about the death of Jack Giles. Could she put that out of her mind in basing decisions, because no evidence was going to be coming into trial about Jack Giles?
Another problem for both the prosecution and the defense was that the Grand Junction area still had a small-town feel to it, and many of the people either knew Alan Helmick, Miriam Helmick, or someone connected to the case. One prospective juror remembered Alan Helmick when he was a teenager. Another prospective juror worked at the Whitewater Post Office and heard all the talk about the murder case. Steve Colvin asked this prospective juror, “That (the murder) doesn’t happen every day, right?” The person replied, “Not in Whitewater!”
Finally, by November 10, 2009, a jury was impaneled for the upcoming trial. The jury was made up often men and six women, four of them being alternates. And one more detail was learned. Judge Valerie Robison ruled that Miriam Helmick would
not
be wearing cosmetics during the trial. This was because the sheriff ’s office had noted that eyeliner pencils and cosmetics were considered to be contraband in the jail where Miriam resided.
not
be wearing cosmetics during the trial. This was because the sheriff ’s office had noted that eyeliner pencils and cosmetics were considered to be contraband in the jail where Miriam resided.
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