Helen Golay, 77, was convicted of the first-degree murders of Kenneth McDavid, 50, in 2005 and Paul Vados, 73, in 1999. She was also convicted of the conspiracy counts in both killings. Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, was convicted of conspiracy to murder McDavid for financial gain.
Prosecutors said the women selected their victims from among the homeless of Hollywood, paid thousands of dollars in insurance policies on them and paid to put them up in apartments for a time, then drugged them and ran them over in secluded alleys.
Both men initially appeared to have been victims of hit-and-run accidents, and police linked the cases only in late 2005 when a detective investigating one overheard a colleague describe a similar case.
A major blow to the women’s defense was a secretly recorded videotape of the two in a lockup after their arrests. Rutterschmidt berated Golay, saying her actions in taking out 23 insurance policies raised a red flag when the men died.
"It's your fault," Rutterschmidt told Golay. "You can't have that many insurances... You were greedy. That's the problem."
On the various policies, the women represented themselves as a cousin and a fiancee the slain men. Defense lawyers admitted the women were involved in insurance fraud but denied a murder conspiracy.
Golay's convictions carry potential sentences of life in prison without possibility of parole. The single conspiracy count returned against Rutterschmidt carries a sentence of 25 years to life.