Point Reyes Light - September 7, 2000
Murder charges in Woodacre slayings
Contra Costa County prosecutors filed murder charges Wednesday against three suspects for the pre-dawn shooting on Aug. 3 of a couple sleeping in Woodacre.
Harold Jewett, Contra Costa deputy district attorney, confirmed Wednesday that his office was charging Glenn Helzer, 30, Justin Helzer, 28, and Dawn Godman, 26, all of Concord, with the shootings of Jenny Villarin and her friend James Gamble, who were house-sitting in Woodacre for Villarin's daughter Selina Bishop.
"I cannot elaborate on the amended complaint," Jewett told The Light. "But I can say that it will include two additional counts in the murders of Jennifer Villarin and James Gamble."
All three suspects were each charged Aug. 23 with the murders of Bishop, 22, Ivan Stineman, 85, and Annette Stineman, 78, as well as conspiracy, extortion, robbery, burglary, false imprisonment, obstruction of justice, vehicle theft and possession of illegal drugs.
Honda turns up Prosecutors have alleged that the trio kidnapped and tried to extort a minimum of $100,000 from the Stinemans before killing them, and then killed Bishop, Villarin, and Gamble in an attempt to eliminate them as witnesses. Bishop is the daughter of blues guitarist Elvin Bishop of Lagunitas.
Jewett said Wednesday that the amended complaint does not reduce or alter any of the previous charges. The three suspects will appear later this week in Contra Costa Superior Court in Martinez to be arraigned on the new murder charges.
Crime scene technicians on Wednesday continued to gather evidence from Bishop's 1984 Honda Accord, which was recovered Aug. 31 on Fourth Street in downtown Petaluma and transferred to a Concord evidence warehouse.
Discovered by a parking attendant issuing a citation, the vehicle had eluded investigators since Bishop was declared missing on Aug. 4 after she failed to show up for work at the Two Bird Cafe in San Geronimo one day after Villarin and Gamble were shot in her Redwood Avenue apartment.
Car had been ticketed The car - which had been ticketed a week before it was found - was discovered only a short distance from the Washington Mutual Bank where on July 31 a possible fourth suspect deposited a check for $10,000 allegedly written by one of the Stinemans.
Marin Sheriff's Sgt. Doug Pittman on Wednesday said investigators are still trying to determine exactly how and when the vehicle ended up in Petaluma. "We don't have any solid information to pinpoint how the car got there or how long it had been there," Pittman said. "We only know that there was a citation issued [for it] on August 24."
Pittman noted that he could not comment on whether the unidentified man last seen in a bank surveillance video had been located, or if a gun recovered by investigators could be positively matched to a 9mm Beretta handgun that Glenn Helzer was documented to have bought on May 5 somewhere in Marin. "We have recovered a weapon, but we are not divulging if it was the Woodacre murder weapon," Pittman said.
Trio's purchases Evidence against the trio of suspects has been steadily mounting since they were arrested Aug. 7 at their Concord residence.
Prosecutors have alleged that before the series of crimes took place, Glenn Helzer purchased the 9mm handgun on May 5, and Godman on June 6 purchased at a Sears in Concord a hand-held power saw that was eventually used to dismember the bodies of Bishop and the Stinemans before they were stuffed into nine duffel bags and dumped into the Mokelumne River sometime before Aug. 7.
In addition, the complaint alleged that between June and August the suspects purchased "a number" of duffel bags from a Kmart in Concord, Godman on July 2 bought three ski masks with eye holes from a Copeland's sporting goods store in Concord, and on July 30 Glenn Helzer and Godman purchased shackles at an adult book store in Pleasanton.