A California jury convicted a former jazz musician of murdering his scientist girlfriend who had vanished last December before being found the following month.
Alice “Alyx” Kamakaokalani Herrmann, 61, disappeared on Dec. 4, 2023, from her Capitola, Calif., home, per El Cerrito police.
Her boyfriend, musician Theobald (Theo) Brooks Lengyel, was arrested in January 2024 after Herrmann’s remains were found that month, per Capitola police.
Lengyel, 54, was convicted of first-degree murder on Friday, Oct. 11, per the Associated Press, KSBW and KRON 4.
During the trial, prosecutors played a three-hour long audio clip of Herrmann pleading with Lengyel for her life, per KSBW, KRON 4 and CBS News. It wasn’t clear if the recording, from her phone, was taken intentionally.
The recording revealed an argument between the couple on the evening of Dec. 4, when Herrmann wanted to stay home while Lengyel, 54, insisted she join him for a night out, according to a transcript shared by KRON 4.
At one point, Lengyel threatens Herrmann, per KRON 4 and the Santa Cruz Sentinel, saying, “I could mash your f—ing brain.”
He makes similar threats over the next two hours, at one point threatening to kill the couple’s dog “to demonstrate how I could kill you,” he says in the recording.
Later, Lengyel pins Herrmann down and says: “Are you at my mercy right now?” Later, he asks, “You wanna live?”
Herrmann says “stop” 53 times in the recording, per prosecutors.
Capitola Police Department Facebook
After Herrmann bites Lengyel’s arm in an attempt to escape, Lengyel says, “You’re gonna f—-ing die right now. Are you ready?”
Herrmann says she can’t see, gasping for air, as Lengyel taunts her: “Okay. How do you want to die? Blunt trauma or something else … think you should be choked to death?”
Within a few minutes, Herrmann’s voice begins to wane.
Herrmann was an accomplished scientist and musician who is remembered as “a rock star, a rocket scientist, a brain surgeon, a martial arts master, and a finance wizard” in an obituary by the California Institute of Technology — or Caltech — her alma mater.
An “adventurous athlete,” Herrmann enrolled in college at the age of 16, went on to get a PhD in neuroscience, landing a job with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, per her friends and family, the Berkeley Scanner reported.
El Cerrito Police Department
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Lengyel is one of the founding members of a jazz-rock band Mr. Bungle, where he played the saxophone, clarinet and keyboard, per the Associated Press. He went on to work in tech and met Herrmann, per SF Gate.
He is scheduled to be sentenced next month, per KSBW, CBS and KRON 4.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
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