And Then She Killed Him (29 page)

Authors: Robert Scott

Tags: #Romance, #True Crime, #General

C
HAPTER 47

A V
ERDICT

On December 7, 2009, closing arguments began by Richard Tuttle telling jurors about all the things Miriam had done before and after the murder of Alan Helmick. According to Tuttle, the Helmick’s housekeeper, Trish Erikson, had seen all the tension between Alan and Miriam on the day before he died. Tuttle contended that Alan had finally discovered that Miriam had been forging his checks, raiding his bank accounts, and keeping important business information from him. In fact, according to Tuttle, it was Miriam’s actions that caused Alan to default on two major loans that were connected to his new business ventures.

In Tuttle’s estimation, things reached a flash point between Miriam and Alan sometime in the early hours of June 10, 2008. While Alan was near his desk in the kitchen, Miriam walked up behind him and shot him once in the back of the head with a .25-caliber handgun. Then she tried to make it look like a burglary gone bad. But Special Agent Robert Morton had spoken of how shoddy the staging of this was. Morton had called it “juvenile,” created by someone who didn’t know what a real burglary scene looked like. Many valuable items were untouched in the Helmick home.

Tuttle also contended that a month before Miriam had killed Alan, she had tried to do so by sticking a wick in a car in which Alan had been sitting, in an attempt to blow him and the car to pieces. According to Tuttle, she had gotten the idea by watching the movie
No Country for Old Men
only days before. The only reason she hadn’t succeeded was that the wick only smoldered, instead of catching on fire in the gasoline tank in the trunk area.

Tuttle also noted that Miriam never tried giving Alan CPR, as instructed by the 911 operator. And the reason she didn’t was because she knew Alan was already dead. Tuttle asked what did Miriam do when she moved to Florida after Alan’s death, and didn’t tell anyone she was going there? She immediately started contacting rich men on dating sites. Not only that, but by that time she was pretending to be a person named Sharon Helmick. According to Tuttle, Miriam always lied when it suited her.

Tuttle said that Miriam claimed that she was better off with Alan alive than dead. What she hadn’t mentioned was that she was entitled to a $25,000 insurance policy, and at least $100,000 from the estate, if not more. That was mandated by Colorado law, no matter what a prenuptial agreement might say. Tuttle insisted that for someone who had come to Grand Junction with $600 in her purse, that was a lot of money.

For his part, Steve Colvin refuted everything that Richard Tuttle had just told the jurors. Colvin stated that very early on, the investigators decided to zero in on Miriam as the killer of Alan Helmick. According to Colvin, they never seriously looked at anyone else as the killer, even though there were many leads that it could have been someone angry at Alan’s business dealings, people who landscaped his yard, or even just a random act of burglary on the house that had gone bad.

Colvin noted that a murder weapon had never been found, and no gunshot residue had been found on Miriam’s hands, body, or clothing. As far as the particle of GSR on the steering wheel of the car that Miriam had been driving that day, Colvin said that the vehicle had been driven to a police holding yard, and an officer could have inadvertently deposited GSR on the steering wheel from his own hands.

Colvin admitted that the greeting card under the doormat was a bad idea on Miriam’s part. But he insisted it wasn’t sinister, but rather a desperate act of last resort by Miriam to make the sheriff ’s office come out to the house and see a white pickup truck and its driver were lurking around the house.

As far as Miriam supposedly not being grief-stricken enough when she found Alan on the floor, Colvin said, “They thought she didn’t cry enough? That’s preposterous.” And he said that law enforcement and the prosecution combined one minor thing after another, and they tried to make them seem like all parts of a guilty conscience: things such as not cleaning up Alan’s blood for days after he was killed, or saying “I love you” too many times on her voice messages of June 10, 2008, or things even as minor as stuffing receipts into her jeans pockets rather than into her purse that day.

Colvin declared, “It’s no wonder law enforcement focused on Miriam early in the investigation. Alan’s family and friends never liked Miriam. They lined up to say she must have had something to do with his murder. She must have even poisoned him in the spring.”

Colvin, however, noted that Dr. Kurtzman shot this idea down. Kurtzman had not found any indication that Alan had ever been poisoned. And Kurtzman said that Alan had suffered a heart attack sometime in February or March, and that’s what made him so sick all spring. In fact, according to Kurtzman, it was lucky that Alan was alive at all when he was murdered, because his arteries were so clogged and his heart so weak.

As far as gaining money from Alan’s murder, Colvin pointed out, that other than checking about the $25,000 insurance policy, Miriam never tried to collect on anything else she was entitled to. She had simply left the Grand Junction area because she wanted to be near her son. No one in law enforcement had ever said that she could not leave the Grand Junction area.

And Colvin pointed out that Miriam didn’t date anyone new for several months after Alan’s death. Colvin granted that it was a mistake on Miriam’s part to be using Sharon Helmick’s name, but by that point she was desperate to have some form of identification.

Colvin told the jurors, “Nothing suggests she benefited from Alan’s death. Your decision has to be based upon the principles of law, beginning with the presumption of innocence. There has been a lack of evidence throughout this case, and that’s the basis for reasonable doubt. All their (the prosecution’s) theories are based upon speculation.”

Tammy Eret had the last say to the jurors. In some ways, it was her last hurrah as a prosecutor for the Mesa County DA’s Office. She would soon be leaving that office to go into private practice.

Eret countered Colvin’s arguments one by one, stating that Miriam had plenty of motive to murder Alan Helmick. And the main motive was that he’d found out that she was forging his checks and keeping vital business information from him.

Eret also mocked Miriam Helmick’s testimony, about how she was right, and one person after another who testified with damaging information against her were wrong. Eret said that Miriam must be the “unluckiest person in the world” to have so many things misunderstood when it came to her.

Eret called Miriam a manipulative liar, who had come to Grand Junction, looking for a sugar daddy. Miriam had been so bold about this, she’d told many people at Barbara Watts’s dance studio exactly what she was looking for.

And according to Eret, Miriam was such a liar, she even lied to her own son, Chris. Eret said, “She told him that she’d been cleared by Mesa County authorities. That was not true. If she tells her son a story, what are you to her? Who can believe her?”

When it was time for the jurors to convene their deliberations, Mother Nature intervened and almost made that impossible. A blizzard was blowing outside, and one of the jurors from Palisade, a nearby town, had to be driven to the courthouse by an MCSO deputy. The jurors deliberated for five hours; by three in the afternoon, they had their verdict.

A cordon of bailiffs and deputies stood near Miriam Helmick at the defense table, and by Alan’s daughters in the gallery, as the jurors filed into the courtroom. When asked how they had found in the various charges against Miriam Helmick, the words poured out one after another: “Guilty.” Guilty of first-degree murder. Guilty of attempted murder in the car fire incident. Guilty of forgery. Miriam was acquitted on only one minor incidence of forgery because of lack of evidence on that charge.

Miriam put a Kleenex to her face and started crying. Soon she was escorted from the courtroom by deputies. She was on her way to prison. Even though sentencing would come later, Judge Robison had no discretion in the matter. A guilty count on first-degree murder in Colorado carried a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Outside the courtroom, Rich Tuttle praised the MCSO investigators, especially lead investigator Jim Hebenstreit. As far as Miriam Helmick went, Tuttle told a reporter, “I don’t think she’s mentally ill. I don’t know what her issues are.”

Wendy Helmick agreed, stating, “The things she says are beyond my understanding.”

Even a few jurors spoke with reporters. They let it be known that within ten minutes of starting deliberation, they all agreed that Miriam Helmick was guilty of false reporting, and that concerned the greeting card under the doormat.

Soon one guilty charge after another came in—all except for a forgery count on a $5,000 check. As to why these jurors thought Miriam was guilty, four of them announced at the same time, “Liar!” One man named Tom elaborated and called Miriam a “psychopathic liar.”

A man named Butch declared, “She’s very scheming. Very manipulative. Her stories were not consistent.”

In fact, the jurors, who talked to reporters, agreed that Miriam had actually hurt her cause by testifying in her own defense. A woman named Gale said that she was put off by Miriam’s demeanor on the stand. Others called her “an actress.”

Jurors also agreed that FBI agent Robert Morton had made a good case when he testified that Miriam had staged the crime scene. In fact, testimony was so compelling toward her being guilty on the murder and attempted murder counts, the jurors had spent most of their time deliberating about the forged checks.

C
HAPTER 48

E
ND OF THE
L
INE

Miriam was back in court on December 9, 2009, to learn what her sentencing would be. Up until her conviction, she’d always worn street clothes while sitting at the defense table. Now, clad in a jail jumpsuit, she also wore shackles as she sat by her attorney.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Tammy Eret asked Judge Valerie Robison for the maximum sentencing on all counts. Eret said that Miriam had “committed specific crimes on different days.” Miriam already faced a mandatory life sentencing without parole on the first-degree murder count. Eret wanted the other charges also to carry sentencing to address the fact that Miriam had committed various crimes in her first attempt to kill Alan, and then in her successful attempt to murder him.

Miriam was given a chance to speak before sentencing. She chose not to, and instead stared at the wall with no expression on her face. Kristy Helmick-Burd, however, did give a statement, telling the judge that her father and all the girls trusted Miriam and tried to embrace her as Alan’s second wife. And in return she had betrayed them all.

In the end, Judge Robison added 108 years for the other charges onto Miriam’s life sentence. Robison said, “Whether it’s symbolic or not, I think it’s necessary.”

After the verdict, defense attorney Steve Colvin told a reporter that he was disappointed in the sentencing. Then he added, “I do hope this brings some comfort to the family, but obviously Ms. Helmick has a constitutional right to an appeal.”

After the trial, MCSO investigator Jim Hebenstreit was in Denver at the quarterly meeting of the Colorado Homicide Investigators Association. To Hebenstreit’s surprise, he was awarded a plaque acknowledging him as Colorado’s “Homicide Investigator of the Year” for his work on the Helmick case.

Complex Crimes Investigative Unit sergeant Henry Stoffel said of Hebenstreit, “I’m proud of Jim for getting this award, but his dedication to all cases and the pursuit of justice is his mission every time.”

In a sense, Portia Vigil had the last word about Miriam Helmick. Portia told a reporter, “We are happy that she can’t hurt anyone else, and this helps us to start healing. We have spent so much time and energy on Miriam, and this is the end. We will spend no more.”

A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS

I’d like to thank the Mesa County Sheriff ’s Office and Mesa County District Attorney’s Office for their help on this book. I’d also like to thank my editor, Michaela Hamilton.

COMING SOON FROM BERKLEY BOOKS
JANUARY
2013

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INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS

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