Date With the Devil (21 page)

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Authors: Don Lasseter

BOOK: Date With the Devil
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With some friendly persuasion from two well-trained officers, King agreed to accompany them to the Hollywood Station for an interview with Vicki Bynum and Tom Small.
In the same tiny room where Mahler had sat and tried to make deals eleven days earlier, Atticus King told the detectives about being Mahler's friend for over five years. He admitted transporting prostitutes for Dave, but denied being a pimp. He was nothing more than a taxi driver. Yes, he said, David used a lot of drugs. Atticus spoke freely of events at the LAX Marriott Hotel, including the hooker, a violent altercation in which a television set was ruined, and the extravagant costs. It had been his idea, he said, to meet at the Marriott rather than the Beverly Wilshire, where Mahler wanted to go.
Soon after they entered the hotel room, King recalled, Mahler had started raving: “She tried to kill me! We were talking, having a good time, and then she freaked out. She pulled a gun on me!”
Small and Bynum both remembered that in Donnie Van Develde's account, Mahler had accused Kristi of pulling a knife on him.
Atticus said he had asked Dave, who was he talking about? Rolling his eyes and squinting as if in pain, Atticus admitted knowing that Dave was prone to exaggerations, so he thought the wild claim related to some dispute with a prostitute over money.
“Mahler just kept on a-hollerin',” King declared. “He tol' me, ‘I took the gun away and killed her. Shot her!'” King said he hadn't believed Mahler. “I thought he was bluffin'.”
Next, said King, Mahler had shut up long enough to order room service meals for both of them, along with a large bottle of Rémy Martin. “He left a tip of one hundred and fifty dollars.”
Small asked if Mahler was on drugs. Yes, said King. “He was wiped out, going back and forth from the meth pipe to alcohol. Then he started yelling again. He said, ‘The bitch tried to kill me! We were having a good time, having sex and getting high. She pulled the gun on me, and I wrestled it away from her and I shot her!'”
Snatching a multicolored baseball hat off his head to mop sweat from his wrinkled brow and from furrowed muscles on the back of his neck, Atticus spoke again, huffing as if he had just completed a one-hundred-meter dash. “I still didn't believe him. Then he passed out, or at least took a long nap. I stayed there to watch over him.”
When Mahler woke up, according to King, he made a phone call to arrange for a prostitute to come to the hotel.
“All hell broke loose a few hours later,” King complained. “When she said her price was two thousand dollars for the night, Dave flew off the handle. He refused to pay and started in to whop on her. Man, I never saw anything like it. He was crazy out of his head. It got so wild in there—he busted a nice TV set. I had to step in between them and get him settled down. And that girl, she ain't backin' down none.”
A compromise had been reached, said King, in which he paid the hooker $700, with a promise to give her more on the next day. “Man,” King huffed, “It's really hard to believe someone could commit murder and then turn around and party like Dave did. That sounds more like Ted Bundy. It's sociopathic.”
Mahler's next request, in Atticus's recollection, had been out of bounds. Pronouncing the word “asked” as “axed,” he said, “Dave asked me how much money it would take to get me to go to his house, clean it up, and move the dead girl out of there. I told him there ain't no amount of money would get me to do something like that.”
“Are you telling us the truth?”
“I'm tellin' it straight. No way would I lie about this, even for David. I did not help him in any way to clean up or move the body. When I saw the news about this on TV, it cleared up my head about what happened, and made me think he actually did commit murder. I asked my wife what I ought to do, and she said to tell the truth. But I hoped to stay out of it and not get involved.”
Small and Bynum arranged for Atticus King to be transported back to his home. Before he left, they advised him that if the case ever came to trial, he would probably be subpoenaed to testify in court. That prospect put a load of worry in his head and heart.
 
 
 
One other informant contacted the detectives, but the person's name would remain a secret. Wendi Berndt and her team used a code name for someone who supplied information but must remain anonymous. They referred to the individual as “Mrs. Beasley.” In this case, Mrs. Beasley stated that David Mahler had made remarkable threats. He had said that if he could make bail, which he confidently expected to do, he needed to have a gun available to him. Mahler would use the weapon to eliminate a few crucial witnesses.
Donnie Van Develde and Karl Norvik had expressed fear of reprisals by David Mahler. Mrs. Beasley's information seemed to give credence to their fears.
C
HAPTER
24
“I
MAGINE
S
TUFFING
D
OLLARS
IN
T
HAT
G-S
TRING
”
In a subsequent round-table discussion of the case, Vicki Bynum, Tom Small, and Wendi Berndt reflected on the incredible cast of characters populating the David Mahler case. Few movies have depicted such a colorful bunch.
Regarding Atticus King, each of the trio smiled. Asked what made King so likable and outstanding in their memories, Bynum said, “Because he was honest.”
Small had reservations. “He's a pimp.”
Her voice mirthful, Bynum replied, “But an honest one, so believable.”
“Okay,” Small agreed. “Atticus didn't want anything to do with this. He just wanted to play his role as a taxi driver who brings girls to Mahler. I don't think he really believed Mahler was capable of doing something like killing a woman. And so he was trying to be a good buddy. But when Mahler started talking about getting rid of a body, and when Atticus saw the news on TV, that's when he became a believer.”
The interview of Robert Jimenez had revealed Mahler's odd need for a bodyguard when going to strip joints. Bynum had some ideas about that. “He was all about going to clubs, picking up some girl, and making them think he's someone he's not. He portrays himself like a bad version of Tony Montana. He paid Jimenez to walk in with him to those places, like a private bodyguard. Lots of muscle, you know. He's a big fake, and fraud. He could not impress a normal girl.”
The reference to Tony Montana elicited more opinions from the detectives about Mahler's bathroom decoration: a poster of Al Pacino's character in the film
Scarface.
Asked if Mahler had placed it over his bathtub to impress women, Small chuckled. “Most of the women who came there were whores or strippers.”
Of course, this characterization would not include Stacy Tipton, who had been in David Mahler's life for nearly two decades. Bynum also excluded Kristin. “I don't think she was like the strippers or hookers. Nobody ever said anything bad about her. She just got caught up in Mahler's trap.” Small agreed.
Regarding the poster, Bynum said, “I think it's more than impressing women. I think it's how he fancies himself. I don't know any women who would be impressed by a picture of Tony Montana. It's like ‘I'm a big bad dude,' the image of a gangster, a mover and a shaker in movie land. He thought he was the king of Hollywood Hills.”
Berndt added, “It represented the evil side of Mahler.”
Responding to a comment that the poster must have impressed Cheryl Lane, Bynum couldn't hide her negative impression. She and Brett Goodkin had paid a visit to Cheryl's apartment to ask a few more questions. They found it a disgusting mess. “She's on the bottom rung of those women who strip. Men who find her appealing would have to be really drunk, and it would have to be really dark. Imagine stuffing dollars in that G-string. Yuk! I guess Mahler thought he was running with the stars of adult entertainment. She would be like a cable version of porn.”
Small observed, “She's a professional pole dancer, an acrobat out to make a buck.”
Nodding her head in affirmation, Bynum commented, “That type of a woman, not to knock them, is just trying to make a living. To her, it was nothing but money. And that's what she saw in Mahler.”
“He was just using her,” said Small. “Cheryl was just somebody who owed him. It was a love-hate relationship—on again, off again. There was a point when he considered having her dusted off—killed. I think Kitty, the porn star, was his one true love.”
“They're all tweakers.” Bynum laughed. “Kitty, though, wouldn't bend to Mahler's tough-guy act. Larry Cameron and I went to her production company. It was a typical San Fernando Valley storefront, like in any strip mall, next door to a Subway store and a coffee shop. But inside was a porn business. You walk in the door and they are normal-looking people like us, sitting in offices. What struck me is right when you step inside, there are scales and a measuring tape. When the girls come in to get their assignments, you know, they get weighed and measured.” Bynum paused a moment and said, “I'm sure they knew what we wanted and were not very friendly.”
The subject of a blood trail at Cole Crest came up, and all three had individual opinions. “It was certainly a good educated guess that a body had been moved around and taken away,” said Bynum. “One of the criminalists told us that a victim could not have lived with all this blood loss. I remember the blood smears going from the bedroom, the bathroom, around the corner, on the tile, through the carpet, and all the way out to the garage.”
Small added, “The blood started on the bedroom level, but as you go upstairs, you see blood transfers all up [and] down the steps.”
Wendi Berndt speculated that David Mahler had dragged Kristin from the bedroom. “Then he took her up a short flight of stairs to the living room. To the left of that is a bathroom. Just in front of it is a blood smear on the tile.”
Small said, “I think he rested the body there while he checked to see if anyone was outside, then opened the door and dragged her out to the garage.”
Bynum had a slightly different view. “He left that body exactly where it had fallen. Covered her with the bedspread, tried to get people to help him, and then took off like a scared little boy to the Marriott. I don't think he moved the body at all, until he realized that none of his friends were going to help him.” After a few more minutes of exchanged opinions, Bynum compromised. “It's possible that he moved her right then, though, and put her in the trunk of the Jaguar.”
All three—Wendi Berndt, Vicki Bynum, and Tom Small—agreed that the next development in the case changed everything.
C
HAPTER
25
T
HE
H
ARDEST
T
ASK
OF
A
LL
The big break came on Saturday, June 16.
Sitting among a group of parents at his daughter's softball game, Tom Small heard his cell phone buzz at about ten o'clock in the morning. He flipped it open and listened to the voice of a female officer at the LAPD Command Post. She informed him that the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department was working a crime scene near Barstow involving an unknown deceased female. She gave Small the telephone number of Detective Mike Gilliam.
Small immediately called. Later speaking of it, he said, “Gilliam advised that they were processing the scene of a body dump. The decedent appeared to be a female.”
The Barstow Police Department, Gilliam told Small, had advised his unit that Hollywood Homicide was investigating the possible murder of a woman who might have been dumped in the Barstow area. They had seen the notification sent out by Detective Small. Gilliam couldn't be certain this was the one Hollywood sought. Three female bodies had turned up in the desert vicinity. He told Small these remains were in extremely poor condition, in a state of advanced decomposition, and somewhat mummified.
Small replied, “Well, maybe I can make it easy. What's she wearing?”
Gilliam said, “We can't really tell much about the top because it is so degraded. It looks multicolored. The pants are like very thin parachute material, almost transparent.”
“It's gotta be mine,” said Small. “That matches the description given to us of her clothing. It's probably going to be her, but we really won't know until we get her back here for an autopsy. Please do me a favor. Do a good crime scene on it and see if you can sift through some of the debris below her for a bullet.”
The response from Gilliam sounded pessimistic. “There's really not much of anything here to help. But we will definitely sift the sand. We'll ask the coroner if they can lift some kind of a fingerprint.” But, he said, the effects of wind and drifting sand would have long since eliminated footprints, tracks, and probably any other trace evidence.
“We believe our victim was shot in the face,” Small said. “Can you see any sign of that?”
“We really can't tell. The coroner is here to take the remains away. Detective Chris Fisher is the lead on this case.” Gilliam gave Fisher's phone number to Small.
Small learned of the body location on Nebo Street, north of I-40, close to old Route 66, and near Daggett. Other descriptive comments about the corpse convinced him that Kristin Baldwin's remains had been found. Closer examination of the clothing revealed a pink bra. A gold-colored wristwatch on the left wrist didn't help because Small hadn't heard of any specific jewelry worn by Kristin, but characterization of the long hair as dishwater blond seemed to fit. Those unusual, sheer white pants described by Donnie Van Develde and David Mahler sealed it for Small.
On Sunday morning, Small spoke to Wendi Berndt by telephone, informed her of the news, and said he would follow up with Detective Fisher. That conversation took place later Sunday. Fisher gave Small a summary of how the body had been found when a pair of Good Samaritans had tried to aid Allura McGehay, whose pickup was stuck in the sand. Updating the crime scene investigation, Fisher said the area around the body had been “sifted and shoveled,” but nothing turned up. They had collected some discarded plastic bottles and a few cigarette butts, but these didn't look very promising.
Later that same day, a call from the San Bernardino County Coroner's Department erased most of the remaining doubt about identification of the body. A specialist had utilized the Microsil process, squeezing gel compound from a tube directly onto the body's fingertips, allowing it to harden, and meticulously lifting it off. The procedure, requiring patient skill and extraordinary care, succeeded in obtaining partial fingerprints from the decomposed flesh. Because Kristin Baldwin had once been arrested on a DUI charge, her pitiful remains would now have a name.
 
 
Tom Small and Vicki Bynum received notification on Monday from Lieutenant Cheryl MacWillie, of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Department, that the body would be taken into custody from the San Bernardino County Coroner's Department. The remains would be transported that same day.
In the early afternoon, the two detectives arrived at the Los Angeles facility on North Mission Road just as the body was being checked in. Cheryl MacWillie allowed them a view before technicians began the process of preparation for an autopsy. Seeing the remains of murder victims had long since lost its shock value to Bynum and Small. However, they had been working so hard on this case for the last ten days, and had learned so much about Kristin Baldwin, this one impacted them a little differently. In most cases, they saw the bodies before learning anything about their backgrounds. Now it felt as if they had known Kristin for a long time.
Even though they had steeled themselves against the instinctive repulsion, this one still required strong constitutions. Small noted, “The body exhibited a large amount of insect activity and exuded a heavy putrid odor.” The remaining skin appeared to be dehydrated and in a mummified condition. The cramped fetal position, with both legs pulled up tightly under the upper torso, led them to believe she had been manually forced into that position. Rigor mortis, which stiffens a dead body, begins about three to four hours after death. Approximately twenty-four hours later, depending on ambient conditions, it relaxes until completely limp. Kristin had probably been squeezed into this configuration perhaps two or three days after she died so she would fit into the trunk of a car.
Fluoroscope and X-rays of the corpse failed to reveal any bullets or fragments.
Making notes, Bynum and Small observed that the face was “skeletonized” with only a small amount of skin left clinging to the bone. The remaining long, wavy sandy brown or blond hair reached approximately to her shoulders. Bynum drew Small's attention to the perfect “French manicure” of the fingernails. Kristin still wore a bracelet, earrings, a ring, and a gold-colored watch that had glinted in the desert sunlight.
According to the official report, the shreds of discolored clothing, dirty and stained, consisted of:
1.
A “Secret Pleasures,” tanklike top shirt with pink flowers, short sleeve, size 3–5 with abundant decomposition fluid and beetles present. There is a single lower incisor tooth discovered in the clothing that is subsequently removed and placed in a stock jar.
2.
A pink bra
3.
A thong, small
4.
Yellow and white pants, juniors, size 5.
All of the above clothing items, as described above show decomposition fluid that is dried with beetles present and dirt debris adherent.
 
 
Not long after the body had arrived, Dr. Louis Pena, deputy medical examiner (ME), conducted the official autopsy. Detectives Brett Goodkin and Jerry Wert joined Bynum and Small to witness the gruesome procedure.
Most autopsies of murder victims are performed on a complete human body. In this case, Dr. Pena had little to work with. In the routine preparation, he weighed the remains. Dehydrated and incomplete, the body tipped the scale at only thirty-one pounds. As he followed the normal progressive steps, the doctor spoke into a recorder, observing that none of the vital organs or soft tissue remained intact. “Portions of the trachea are present and are desiccated. The lungs are not identified. The esophagus, bowels, appendix, and pancreas are in advanced state of decomposition. A portion of the liver is present but extensively dehydrated. No assessment of the liver can be made. The gallbladder cannot be identified. The uterus, fallopian tubes, endometrium, cervix, and vagina cannot be assessed due to decomposition. The ovaries are not identified.” The same observations applied to all of the abdominal cavity, heart, glands, the eyes, spinal cord, and brain tissue. “The breasts are difficult to examine due to the decomposed state of the body.”
In his interview of Robin, Jerry Wert had learned that Kristin had a small tattoo of a blue dolphin on her lower abdomen. He and the other three detectives watched as Dr. Pena's examination revealed the dolphin on the leatherlike flesh.
All four detectives knew that witnesses Donnie Van Develde and Karl Norvik thought David Mahler had shot Kristin in the face. Hoping for some information related to gunshot injuries, they waited patiently, but even that turned out to be ambiguous.
Tom Small later said, “I observed the examination as the autopsy progressed. The body exhibited a circular hole or puncture on the upper right chest, near the neck. There was an unexplained hole inside the nasal cavity and another large hole at the base of the neck on the upper back. No apparent skull or facial fractures were noted. A tooth was recovered from the nasal cavity, and another tooth was recovered from the upper body clothing.”
Dr. Pena found that “the upper right chest shows a round hole... . One cannot assess for soot or stippling.” Also, “the posterior neck shows a large gaping hole, or defect four inches below the top of the head.” In addition, he noted that radiology provided information of “metallic fragments present in the spinal column region and the rib, with acute fractures consistent with a gunshot injury.” His eventual conclusion was that Kristin had died from a “gunshot wound of the torso.”
Looking ahead to possible trial complications, the detectives hoped this finding would not undermine testimony from Van Develde and Norvik.
 
 
Before the day ended, Tom Small and Vicki Bynum performed perhaps the hardest job of all in a murder investigation. They contacted Robin Henson, Peter Means, and a few other family members of Kristin's to notify them that Kristin's remains had been found and positively identified.
Robin would later speak of a strange experience. “Not long after I learned that she was gone, I took my kids to school one day. When I came home, I could smell pancakes. My mind flashed back to those wonderful Sunday mornings when Kristin was staying with us and would make pancakes for our breakfast. The aroma would fill the rooms. No one had made them on that particular morning, and I had the strong sense that Kristin had been there. After that episode, I never felt her presence in my house again—like she had gone somewhere else. She had paid us a visit, said good-bye, and moved on. I hope her spirit went back to Maui and she is happy there.”
Jennifer Gootsan had a similar experience. “Things had not been going well in my life and I was thinking about moving to Hawaii. I called a friend and said I was going to get Kristin and we are going to live over there. That night, when the call came with awful news, I was wearing a sweatshirt she had given me, with the name of Polli's restaurant on it.” In telling this, Jennifer's voice broke and tears streamed down her cheeks.

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