Disturbing new details have emerged about a former rocker from a cult 1980s band who fatally strangled his girlfriend, as the man, now 54, faces trial for her murder.
Lawyers for Theobald Lengyel, former saxophonist for the cult experimental rock band Mr. Bungle, do not deny that he killed Alice “Alyx” Kamakaokalani Herrmann, 61, in December 2023.
Instead, they argue that their actions do not constitute murder and Lengyel has pleaded not guilty. The San Francisco portal reports.
But prosecutors have painted a portrait of the former rocker as an alcoholic who had a history of anger issues despite his $200,000-plus-a-year job in financial technology and his family.
He even allegedly hit his now ex-wife and pushed her sister to the ground, they testified.
Theobald Lengyel, 54, is facing trial for the alleged murder of his girlfriend
Lengyel played saxophone in the cult experimental rock band Mr. Bungle.
In 1996, Lengyel was unceremoniously asked to leave Mr. Bungle, but character witnesses at his murder trial in Santa Cruz Superior Court said he remained a charismatic and happy guy.
He had graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in physics a year earlier, and in February 1999, he met Joleen Welch outside a San Francisco cafe when she stopped to pet his dog.
The couple spent the next year traveling around Europe and officially tied the knot in 2001. They went on to have three children and Welch said their marriage, which lasted until 2017, started off well.
“He was a good father to newborn babies and far exceeded my expectations,” he said when he took the stand on Sept. 10, according to The Gate.
But in the late 2000s, Lengyel’s temperament suddenly began to change and he began to resent his job as a programmer for investment banks.
He had told his wife the job was becoming too stressful and time-consuming as he dreamed of a different life for his family and hoped to open a restaurant with his savings, jurors heard.
Alice ‘Alyx’ Kamakaokalani Herrmann, 61, was killed by strangulation in December 2023
At that point, Welch said, Lengyel changed his habits from being a marijuana smoker to an alcoholic, and his alcohol consumption increased around 2015.
That year, the family planned to attend a Giants game in the afternoon, but Lengyel “was already drinking” before they left, Welch said.
She recounted how Lengyel drove drunk and parked in the garage of his workplace, from where they walked to the stadium.
But as they walked, Welch said she noticed her husband was getting increasingly drunk.
“He was saying things that… made me feel like he wanted me to lower my voice,” Welch said.
She claimed that when she expressed discomfort, Lengyel would berate her by telling her she was “not funny” or that she “couldn’t take a joke.”
“I just wanted him to go away,” Welch said. “I was embarrassed.”
She then decided to take her children home and told her husband not to follow them.
“I didn’t want to be around him when he was really drunk,” Welch explained.
However, Lengyel later showed up at the house and smashed the back door window when Welch told him to leave.
He also allegedly pushed Welch against a wall and then onto a couch, where he punched her in the stomach.
“He was screaming, almost foaming at the mouth, calling me an idiot,” Welch testified through tears.
Welch went on to describe her ex-husband as “scary,” “unpredictable” and even “violent” when he was drinking.
But when asked by Deputy District Attorney Conor McCormick if Lengyel was only scary when he was drinking, she replied: “Not necessarily. There were times when he was scary to me even when he wasn’t drunk.”
Lengyel allegedly showed officers where to find her remains and handed over his cell phone.
Other family members also spoke out about the former rocker’s change in behavior in the years before he began dating Herrmann.
Ariana Frances Allgeier, Lengyel’s niece, even corroborated Welch’s story, saying her uncle confided in her that he had beaten his wife.
She said she remembers him telling her, “If she stays with me, I don’t know if I’ll be more disappointed in her or in myself.”
Tess Lengyel, Theobald’s sister, also recounted how she tried to intervene when her brother got into a shouting match with their stepfather on Thanksgiving Day 2016, and her brother pushed her to the ground.
She said she and other family members emailed Lengyel with resources to encourage him to seek help for his alcohol and anger issues, but her brother “flat-out refused,” calling their resources “useless” and saying he “didn’t believe in getting therapy and he didn’t believe in getting help.”
Still, Tess said, she tried to maintain a relationship with her brother.
But over time he became too rude.
“He would call in the middle of the night at very late hours and if I answered, he would sound drunk, and he would say some things that were very rude and vulgar,” Tess testified, sharing how her brother would call her a “stupid bitch” and a “whore” in calls and voicemails.
Finally, in 2017, she was granted a restraining order against her brother.
Herrmann, 61, was last seen in Santa Cruz on Dec. 3. Her car was found parked in front of her celebrity ex-boyfriend’s El Cerrito home.
Mr. Bungle poses for a group portrait backstage at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco in April 1992, four years before Lengyel was unceremoniously kicked out of the band.
Lengyel now faces murder and carjacking charges in the death of Herrmann, whose remains were found in a wooded area inside Tilden Regional Park in Berkley.
Herrmann, who worked for financial firm Moody’s, was last seen in Santa Cruz on December 3, 2023, and was reported missing by her family on December 12.
Authorities now say Herrmann was strangled when her Apple Watch stopped registering a heartbeat on Dec. 4 at 11:44 p.m., which was also the last day she logged into her work VPN.
Lengyel then drove to Portland, Oregon, around Dec. 8 to visit her brother Jed, whom she had previously texted: “Be prepared, it’s worse than you think.” Santa Cruz Viewpoint reports.
He then left his truck at his brother’s house and returned to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he told police where to find Herrmann’s body and handed over his cell phone.
El Cerrito police later found Herrmann’s Toyota Highlander in front of Lengyel’s El Cerrito home, and at trial, Brendan Kellman of the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office testified that he performed a forensic examination of the vehicle and found “several visible blood stains” inside.
Detective Michael Oliveri also testified that the agency had video recordings of Lengyel driving the Highlander near where Herrmann’s body was found.
Lengyel’s defense team has not disputed many of these facts, but denies that Lengyel’s use of Herrmann’s car constitutes carjacking.
They also say Lengyel could have killed his then girlfriend, but he did not.
“They played pool together, they drank together, they walked together, they gambled together,” defense attorney Annrae Angel argued in her opening statement.
“What I’m going to tell you is that the evidence is going to show that he killed her, but it’s also going to show that he loved her and that this relationship was very, very important to him.”
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