Date With the Devil (18 page)

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Authors: Don Lasseter

BOOK: Date With the Devil
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According to Goldberg, after Mahler and the woman had made their appearance, all four of them sat around a table for about two hours. Mahler and the client immersed themselves in a business discussion, but Goldberg had paid little attention to what they were saying. Casually chatting with Kristi, he heard her say that she used to work at a couple of restaurants in Newport.
When the business discussion ended, the client left. Goldberg told Mahler he had reserved a room for him at the nearby Island Hotel. He led the way in his car, while Mahler and Kristi followed in the Jaguar. When they arrived, he went to the check-in desk with them and produced a certificate for a free night. A local auto sales dealer had given it to Goldberg. To use it, Goldberg registered for the room in his name. Mahler, Goldberg said, had aggressively tried to convince the clerk to upgrade them to a suite, but he had failed. Goldberg had gone up the elevator with them, talked in the room for fifteen or twenty minutes, and then left to drive to his nearby home.
In regard to Kristi, Goldberg had the impression that Mahler “liked her a lot.” But sometime Friday morning, Mahler had called him. “I remember that he was angered or upset. And he said, ‘We got to get this bitch out of here. I hate her and I don't want to pay for a cab or a limo.'”
The turn of events had surprised Goldberg. Asked why, he said that Mahler had privately confided something in their conversation at the hotel. He had said that he loved her.
Additional footage from outdoor cameras showed Mahler's arrival in the blue Jaguar with Kristin. Later she could be seen alone in the lobby. Jonathon Thompson could recall that part of the sequence quite well, since he had been standing only a short distance away from Kristin. He told Small that she had appeared distraught. In his recollection, she met a male in the lobby and left with him in a taxi. He had formed the opinion that Mahler had left her stranded.
 
 
Upon returning to Hollywood from her trip to the LAX Marriott, Vicki Bynum joined Wendi Berndt to have a look at the Cole Crest house. While observing criminalists going methodically through the rooms, the two women decided to search for the single bullet that, in Donnie Van Develde's story, had killed Kristin Baldwin.
Thinking that it might have hit the fireplace, Bynum sifted through the ashes but couldn't locate it. She later said, “It appeared to me that he had burned some clothing in there, probably things that belonged to the victim. The cleaning materials certainly indicated that someone had tried to scrub away evidence at [the] crime scene. It sure wasn't because he was a neat person. This guy was a pig.”
In the master bathroom, both women were struck by the picture of Al Pacino that Mahler had chosen to hang on a wall over the spa tub. Bynum later said, “Almost every thug, gangster, or doper fancies himself to be like Tony Montana, the role Pacino played in
Scarface.
Mahler is no exception. He runs around with the white robe open, with his little—his nonman-hood exposed, you know. There was some mention of him walking around naked all the time. He thinks he is Tony Montana, but he's not. And he lives in his fantasy drug-gangster world. What kind of a middle-aged person who has been to law school wants a picture of
Scarface
over their bathtub?”
 
 
Tom Small and Vicki Bynum teamed up again before noon on that Monday and paid a visit to the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, better known as the Criminal Courts Building, in downtown Los Angeles. In the district attorney's office on the seventeenth floor, they met with Deputy District Attorney (DDA) Cathryn Brougham in the Major Crimes Division. After reading their written report and discussing the Mahler case with them, Brougham filed one count of murder, a violation of
Penal Code Section 187 (a),
and one count of assault with a firearm, a violation of
P.C. Section 245 (a) (2)
against David A. Mahler. Another count would later be added:
P.C. Section 120022.53 (d), personal use of a firearm.
Now, with the charges made official, Mahler would be required to remain in jail until an arraignment.
Both detectives understood the difference between securing charges against Mahler and providing enough evidence to convince a jury of his guilt. Information they had accumulated so far probably wouldn't even persuade jurors to agree on a verdict of involuntary manslaughter. The body hadn't been found, no murder weapon had been located, and blood evidence hadn't yet been matched to any victim. The statements of Karl Norvik and Donnie Van Develde might be eviscerated by a sharp defense attorney. Mahler could be portrayed in court as incapable of forming intent to kill, due to the influence of drugs and alcohol. His erratic behavior might be characterized as mental illness.
Still facing a mountain of obstacles and a staggering workload, Small and Bynum returned to the grind that same afternoon.
Tom Small, back at the Hollywood Station, prepared to interview Karl Norvik, who had agreed to drive in from Orange County.
Small hadn't expected search teams to find any trace of a victim in the desert near Barstow. Still, he felt a sense of disappointment. Maybe Mahler had lied about Kristin being taken to that remote area, but Small's intuition convinced him the tale held some elements of truth.
After filing a missing persons report on Kristin Baldwin, he teletyped a message and sent it statewide throughout California, Arizona, and Nevada. To be certain it reached the Barstow area, he sent it again to the Barstow Police Department (BPD), the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, and the California Highway Patrol (CHP).
MESSAGE FROM LAPD HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE—6-4-07
This agency is investigating a homicide of a Jane Doe whom it is believed died from a GSW.
(Author's note: gunshot wound)
The victim has not been found and was likely transported from the murder scene by the suspect(s). The investigation has revealed that the likely victim may be Kristin Baldwin, AKA Kristin Means. She is described to be a F/White, blonde hair, blue eyes, 5'5”, 115 with a dob 05/06/69. The victim was wearing what was described to be white sheer pants with an unknown top. Baldwin is currently a missing person. Any information regarding this individual should be forwarded to the LAPD Hollywood Homicide Unit, Detectives Small or Bynum.
C
HAPTER
21
A M
ATTER
OF
P
ERFECT
T
IMING
In the community of Simi Valley, beyond the northwestern border of Los Angeles County, Kristin's stepfather Peter Means received a call from Robin Henson, who sounded distraught. In recent days, they had exchanged text messages and telephone conversations asking each other if they had heard from Kristin. Robin now told Peter that she had been contacted by the Los Angeles Police Department about an investigation. A missing persons report had been filed, due to statements made by a tip they had received.
Another call came on Monday, June 4, this one was from Detective Wendi Berndt. She asked Means if he would be willing to answer a few questions.
Berndt and a lieutenant traveled more than twenty miles to Simi Valley and arrived after three o'clock that afternoon. Always a gracious host, Peter invited them into his immaculate, comfortable home. A remarkably unflappable, poised individual, Peter managed to hide his distress and fear of a worst-case scenario.
Answering their questions, he told them of Kristin's background, her ten years in Hawaii, and a few men she had dated. He clarified his role as her stepfather, and explained that they had an excellent relationship. Kristin, he said, had recently been living in a guest room at the home of a businessman who produced films. “The place was pretty dumpy, and she was trying to clean it up for him. He is elderly, spends a lot of time in bed, and has an adult son who also lives there. They needed some help. I think that he had been a porn producer.”
Berndt wanted to know when Means had last heard from her. He told of receiving a message on his cell phone about ten days earlier, on Friday, May 25. She had said, “I'm at the Island Hotel in Newport Beach. Can you give me a call when you have time?” He had tried unsuccessfully to call her back.
“Were you normally in regular contact with her?”
“I usually heard from Kristin at least every couple of weeks. She almost never answered her cell phone. I'd call and leave a message, and she would get hold of me sooner or later. Probably like most young women, she would look at the name and say, ‘Oh, it's just Dad. I'll get back to him when I can.'”
“Do you know if she was with anyone in Newport Beach?”
Peter did not. He had not yet heard the name David Mahler. And he had no idea how she had returned.
When bodies are found, police agencies often rely on dental records to identify the remains. Wendi Berndt tactfully asked Peter if he could provide dental records for Kristin, and he agreed to seek them out.
Before Berndt and the lieutenant left, Peter Means provided them with a photo of Kristin, much better than the mug shot they had been using. This one depicted her in Hawaii, making the well-known hand signal with thumb and little finger extended while all three other fingers fold like a fist. Its friendly meaning is “hang loose.”
In Los Angeles, Detectives Vicki Bynum and Larry Cameron visited the LAPD Scientific Investigation Division to view footage recovered from the Cole Crest neighbor's outdoor security camera. What they saw quickened their pulses.
The tape, transferred to a compact disc, included dates and detailed timing of recorded events, down to the hour, minutes, and seconds.
The first clip showed Mahler's 2007 Jaguar backing out of the garage on Sunday morning, May 27, at 06:21:05. This corresponded perfectly with information that he had left Cole Crest that morning and driven to the LAX Marriott.
The next clip showed the Jaguar returning to the Cole Crest garage at 12:34
P.M.
, on Monday, May 28. This, too, fit the time frames of previous information. The next event caught the detectives' instant attention. Just six minutes after the 2007 Jaguar pulled into the garage, the black 1999 Jaguar could be seen backing out, turning around, and being backed into the garage. This would suggest that Mahler had gone inside and dragged the dead body from his bedroom into the garage. Dropping her near the side entry door, he had decided it would be easier to put her into the trunk by backing the vehicle into the garage.
A third clip showed the newer Jaguar pulling into the garage four days later, on Memorial Day, Thursday, May 31, at 1:54
A.M.
Bynum knew David Mahler and Stacy Tipton had checked out of the Standard Hotel on the previous day, Wednesday, so the puzzle pieces seemed to fall into place. Apparently, the body had been lying in the house four full days.
Twenty-three minutes after the newer Jaguar arrived, the 1999 Jaguar pulled out in a forward direction at 2:17
A.M.
, and vanished into the darkness. It remained absent the rest of the night, and didn't return until seven fifteen in the morning. Four hours and fifty-eight minutes had elapsed. This time Mahler didn't back into the garage, but rather headed directly in.
To Bynum, the implications couldn't have been clearer. Mahler had taken a trip of nearly five hours and disposed of Kristin's body. If Mahler's statements of “hearsay” indicating she had been dropped off in the desert near Barstow were true, the timing would be just about perfect.
This information prompted the detectives to contact the provider of Mahler's cell phone service. Their records of calls made and received during those time frames might reveal exactly where he had driven. It is not common knowledge among the general public that locations from which calls are made can be traced later through documentation that identifies cell phone towers used to transmit the calls. Unfortunately for this investigation, the transmission records had been deleted.
A tiny tidbit of information remained, though. Mahler's cell phone had been used to call one of his friends at 1:19
A.M.
, about an hour before the 1999 Jaguar left. The same friend had been called again at 6:34
A.M.
, almost forty-five minutes before the car pulled back into the Cole Crest garage. No activity could be seen between those two calls. It suggested that he had perhaps driven a long distance, and contacted his friend en route back home.
Working long hours and feeling the pressure to locate Kristin Baldwin—whether deceased or still alive—the detectives needed some help. Vicki Bynum asked Officer Brett Goodkin and his partner, Officer Jerry Wert, to lend a hand in interviewing people involved in the case. The duo readily agreed.
Stripper Cheryl Lane, David Mahler's former girlfriend, was easy to locate. Bynum found her telephone number in Mahler's cellular directory. Goodkin gave her a call at three o' clock on that busy Monday. Cheryl said she would meet them the next day at a Starbucks on Sherman Way in Van Nuys. They set a time of 4:30
P.M.
 
 
 
Detective Tom Small sat in the Hollywood Station interview room with Karl Norvik at six o'clock, Monday evening. Nervous and perspiring, Norvik told Small about the living arrangements at Cole Crest for himself, David Mahler, Jeremy Moudy, and Donnie Van Develde. He had been there “for the better part of twelve years,” but he now resided with a relative in Orange County. Mahler had been there about six years. “I used to handle the managerial duties, but David replaced me.”
About the events of Saturday and Sunday, May 26 and 27, Karl said he was at the house when he saw Mahler and another man arrive at about seven o' clock, Saturday evening. The “client,” according to Norvik, was a male Hispanic, fat, approximately five-eleven. He had seen the two men walk through the common area of the residence and down to either Mahler's bedroom or the office. The overweight man stayed only about forty-five minutes.
“Were you there by yourself?” Small asked.
“No. A friend of mine was with me until he left at seven thirty.”
Karl had gone to his bedroom and retired between ten and eleven, he said. About four hours later, approximately three thirty on Sunday morning, he had been awakened by the sounds of loud shouting. He recognized Mahler's distinctive bellowing in argument with an unknown female voice. The prolonged disturbance had been so loud, Norvik had covered his head with a pillow to try to muffle it. He spoke of hearing a loud thud overhead, like something heavy falling to the floor. Also, he thought he heard a female voice scream momentarily, and then all was silent.
To Small's inquiry about hearing a possible gunshot, Norvik couldn't say he had.
At about six thirty, Norvik said, Mahler had banged on his bedroom door, yelling, “This is an emergency. I need to dispose of a dead body.”
“I didn't believe him,” Norvik told Small. “He seemed to be intoxicated. I opened my door and saw him standing there. He repeated his wild comments, and then led me upstairs.”
In Small's written report of the interview, he entered,
Norvik observed a deceased female which he described as a “corpse,” lying on her back, face up, palms up and arms angled out from her sides. The body was lying at the foot of Mahler's bed, about eight feet away from where Norvik stood to make his observations.
His voice shaking with nerves, Norvik told Small that the woman was obviously dead, and it looked to him like she had been shot in the face from close range. He said he saw a large volume of blood on the victim's face and upper body.
Asked for a description of the woman, Karl stated that she was a white female, with bleached blond hair, wearing a halter top, and “sheer” white pants. The sight had been so emotionally disturbing that Norvik had to sit down on the exterior stair landing just outside of Mahler's bedroom.
Norvik recalled asking Mahler, “What did you do?”
Mahler, he said, replied, “I shot her over by the balcony. So you want no part of this?”
Norvik had replied instantly that he absolutely did not want any part of this and returned to his room.
Growing even more nervous, perhaps over the possibility that he might be charged with being an accomplice after the fact, Norvik told the detective that he waited about five or ten minutes, then went out on his balcony for a smoke and to contemplate what he should do. His downstairs neighbor, Donnie, also out on his balcony, called up in a loud whisper to Norvik to say that something bad had happened in Mahler's room. It involved “death and murder.” Donnie, said Karl, used his hands to simulate the action of firing a handgun.
“I played dumb,” Norvik confided to Small. He summoned Donnie up to his room to talk about it. “He gave me his story about seeing Mahler waving a gun around at the girl and at him.” In Donnie's opinion, David was out of his mind on drugs. He had shot the girl right after Donnie stepped out of the room. Donnie left but came back a little later and saw her on the floor, covered by a bedspread, all but one of her hands. “We agreed not to call or tell anyone about it.” Karl remained in his room for several hours, he said, and later heard what he thought was a vacuum cleaner being used in or near Mahler's bedroom.
Frightened that Mahler might come after him, Norvik said, he had left later that evening of May 27 and gone to Orange County. On June 1, he had called Donnie and told him he was about to notify the police.
In Norvik's view, Mahler was a “hot rocket” who used a lot of cocaine and methamphetamine in recent weeks.
Small asked, “Were you aware of any guns in Mahler's possession?”
Yes, said Norvik. Five or six weeks before the murder, Mahler had shown him a .38-caliber revolver, which he kept in a leather holster hidden in his closet. “I think it had either a four- or six-inch barrel.” Uncertain of the weapon's color, Norvik guessed it was silver.
He stated that he thought he had seen a gunshot wound below the victim's left eye, but he couldn't be certain because her face was covered with blood.
As the interview ended, Karl Norvik quoted David Mahler warning him not to tell anyone about the events.
 
 
Working on Monday, June 4, Detective Lance Jurado, another member of the investigative team, located several links in the chain of Kristin Baldwin's life. Working from information Kristin had given at the time of the DUI arrest, Jurado went to an apartment on Woodman Avenue in Van Nuys, where Kristin had sometimes stayed. The manager recognized a photo as Kristin Baldwin and put Jurado in contact with a man who had been dating Kristin. The detective called and spoke to the former boyfriend. They had broken up two or three months ago. He remembered receiving a call from her sometime in May and that she appeared to be “troubled and distressed” because a guy named Damien had accused her of taking something of his.

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