Disturbing new details have emerged about a former rocker from a cult band from the 1980s who fatally strangled his girlfriend. The 54-year-old is now on trial for her murder.
Lawyers for Theobald Lengyel, a former saxophonist in the experimental cult rock band Mr. Bungle, do not deny that he murdered Alice “Alyx” Kamakaokalani Herrmann, 61, in December 2023.
Instead, they argue that his actions do not amount to murder, and that Lengyel has pleaded not guilty, reports the San Francisco Gate.
However, prosecutors have portrayed the former rocker as an alcoholic with a history of fits of rage, despite his job in financial technology with an annual salary of more than $200,000 and his family.
According to witnesses, he even hit his ex-wife and pushed his sister to the ground.
Theobald Lengyel, 54, is on trial for the murder of his girlfriend
Lengyel played saxophone in the cult experimental rock band Mr. Bungle
Lengyel was asked without further ado to leave Mr. Bungle in 1996, but witnesses to his character during the murder trial in Santa Cruz District Court testified that he remained a charismatic and cheerful man.
He had graduated from Cornell University a year earlier with a bachelor’s degree in physics. In February 1999, he met Joleen Welch outside a San Francisco café when she stopped to pet his dog.
The couple traveled through Europe the following year and officially married in 2001. They went on to have three children, and Welch said their marriage — which lasted until 2017 — was off to a good start.
“He was a good father to newborn babies and he far exceeded my expectations,” she said when she testified on Sept. 10, according to the Gate.
But in the late 2000s, Lengyel’s temperament suddenly began to change and he started to dislike his job as a programmer at investment banks.
He had told his wife the job was becoming too stressful and time-consuming because he dreamed of a different life for his family and wanted to start a restaurant with their savings, the jury heard.
Alice ‘Alyx’ Kamakaokalani Herrmann, 61, was strangulated to death in December 2023
At that point, Welch said, Lengyel changed his addictions: He was no longer a pot smoker, but an alcoholic. Around 2015, his drinking increased.
That year, the family wanted to go to a Giants game in the afternoon, but Lengyel was “already drinking” before they left, Welch said.
She told how Lengyel was driving drunk and parked his car in his work garage, from where they walked to the stadium.
But as they walked, Welch noticed her husband becoming increasingly drunk.
“He said things that… made me feel like I wished he would speak a little softer,” Welch said.
She alleged that Lengyel reprimanded her when she expressed her discomfort, telling her she was “not funny” or “couldn’t take a joke.”
“I just wanted him to go away,” Welch said. “I was embarrassed.”
She 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 drunk,” Welch explained.
However, Lengyel later arrived at the house and smashed the back door window when Welch told him to leave.
He also allegedly pushed Welch against the wall and then onto the couch, before punching her in the stomach.
“He was screaming, almost foaming at the mouth and calling me an idiot,” Welch testified through tears.
Welch described her ex-husband as “scary,” “unpredictable” and even “violent” when he was drinking.
But when Assistant District Attorney Conor McCormick asked her if Lengyel was only “scary” when he was drinking, she replied, “Not necessarily. There were times when I was scared, 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 started dating Herrmann.
Ariana Frances Allgeier, Lengyel’s cousin, even corroborated Welch’s story. She said her uncle confided in her that he had beaten his wife.
She said she remembers him saying, “If she stays with me, I don’t know whether I’ll be more disappointed in her or in myself.”
Tess Lengyel, Theobald’s sister, also told how she tried to intervene when her brother got into an argument with her stepfather on Thanksgiving 2016 and pushed her to the ground.
She said she and other family members then emailed Lengyel with information encouraging him to seek help for his alcohol and anger problems, but her brother “adamantly refused,” calling their information “useless.” He said he “didn’t believe in therapy and didn’t believe in seeking help.”
Still, Tess tried to maintain the relationship with her brother.
But eventually he became too rude.
“He would call in the middle of the night, late into the night, and when I answered he sounded drunk and said things that were very rude and vulgar,” Tess testified, saying that her brother called her a “dumb bitch” and a “whore” during phone calls and voicemail messages.
Ultimately, 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 former celebrity boyfriend’s home in El Cerrito.
Mr. Bungle poses for a group portrait backstage at San Francisco’s Warfield Theater in April 1992, four years before Lengyel was unceremoniously fired from the band.
Lengyel now faces murder and grand theft auto charges in connection with the death of Herrmann, whose remains were found in a wooded area in Tilden Regional Park in Berkley.
Herrmann, who worked for the 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 said Herrmann was strangled to death after her Apple Watch stopped registering a heartbeat at 11:44 p.m. on December 4, the last day she logged into her work VPN.
Lengyel then drove to Portland, Oregon around December 8 to visit his brother Jed, to whom he had earlier texted, “Hold on tight, it’s worse than you think.” Santa Cruz Lookout 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. During the trial, Brendan Kellman of the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office testified that he conducted a forensic examination of the vehicle and found “multiple visible blood stains” inside it.
Detective Michael Oliveri also testified that the department had video footage showing Lengyel driving the Highlander near where Herrmann’s body was found.
Lengyel’s defense team has largely not disputed these facts, but denies that Lengyel’s use of Herrmann’s car amounts to car theft.
They also say that Lengyel killed his then-girlfriend, but did not murder her.
“They played pool together, they drank together, they went for walks together, they played games together,” defense attorney Annrae Angel argued in her opening statement.
“What I’m going to tell you is that the evidence will show that he killed her, but it will also show that he loved her and that this relationship was very, very important to him.”