Unholy Sacrifice

by Robert Scott

  Juley Salkeld said, “On cross, Mr. Jewett came unglued. He said, ‘Body bags! Ironic, given the facts of this case!’”

  Dr. Larry Wornian had many observations of Justin that varied from those of Dr. Raffle. Dr. Wornian was a neuropsychologist and staff psychologist at San Quentin Prison. He had been in more than fifty trials where a sanity phase was at issue. He was court-appointed for Justin’s case. He answered to Judge Mary Ann O’Malley, and not Jewett or Cook.

  Dr. Wornian, when questioned by Jewett, said that he’d gone through over one thousand pages of testimony and police reports about Justin. He’d also studied the finding of the other doctors in the case. Picking up the large notebook before him on the stand, he joked, “I hope this doesn’t give me a hernia.”

  In his MCII findings on Justin, he said, “It was one of the most unelevated scales in the whole file. He was an avoidant and shy and retiring person, but not nonfunctional.”

  Dr. Wornian met with Justin on December 1, 2003, and noted that Justin was tall and thin and wearing a beard at that point. He didn’t have any tremors, was oriented to place and time, and seemed coherent. Justin discussed his family, Mormonism and his early years. Wornian noted that Justin had trouble adjusting in school and he thought his older brother, Taylor, was everything he was not—popular with girls, smart and outgoing. Justin told him, “I had a lifelong involvement with the LDS Church until I was twenty-six. Then I felt I was lied to by the Church.”

  While living with his dad and mom, even in his twenties, he had no girlfriend, little money and few prospects. He said, “I felt imbecilic and simple. I hated that.”

  He spoke of four women that he had ever loved. One of them was named Emily. She was good to him, but when she moved away to Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, he said, “I knew there was no chance with her.”

  It was when Carma went to Impact that Justin really began questioning his faith in the Latter-Day Saints Church. After he went to Impact, he said, “I didn’t feel suicidal anymore. It saved my life. I went to the Church and told them I needed an opportunity to sow some wild oats.”

  Apparently Justin followed through on this and even asked to be formally excommunicated.

  As far as his sexuality went, Justin answered one of Dr. Wornian’s questions by saying, “Did I have homosexual urges? I tried it once. It wasn’t for me.”

  Justin added, “Taylor and I became spiritual warriors. We had to make a dent in what Satan was doing. Taylor didn’t really hear voices. They were thoughts. He could immediately see a person’s problems. He was cool to guys, and women loved him.

  “We (Justin and Dawn) thought he might be one of the forerunners come to set the Church right. They were wrong about other branches of Christianity. I didn’t agree with them about reincarnation. We’d listen to Taylor and say, ‘Wow, Taylor is channeling,’ and I began to see the truth.

  “Over time, I felt that Christ was coming. The Church might protect us, but what about Buddhists? The government was the beast power. You can’t trust the government.”

  Dr. Wornian discovered that Justin had been an adherent of the ultraright-wing Bo Gritz. Like some, Justin believed that the Clinton administration was ushering in the reign of Satan. He said, “We thought the government was trying to enslave the American people.”

  As far as Taylor scamming Dean Witter, Justin said that the ends justified the means. “You need money to meet with mayors and rich people. We thought that Taylor throwing out ideas was a step closer to success. I had a premortal contract to fulfill. It’s an agreement. A contract before I was even born. I was willing to be a martyr. I was at peace with this knowledge.”

  Justin quoted 1 Nephi 4: vs 10–13:

  And it came to pass that I was constrained by the Spirit that I should kill Laban; but I said in my heart: Never at any time have I shed the blood of man. And I shrunk and would that I might not slay him.

  And the Spirit said unto me again: Behold the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands. Yea, and I also knew that he had sought to take away mine own life; yea, and he would not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord; and he also had taken away our property.

  And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me again: Slay him, for the Lord hath given him into thy hands.

  Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish than a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief.

  Justin said, “Nephi didn’t want to do it. He killed Laban because God told him to. Robin Hood did it too. Robin Hood fought for the oppressed. He was an archetype, someone to aspire to be like.”

  Dr. Wornian noted that not only Taylor, but Justin as well, had different plans of how to dispose of bodies. One way that Justin came up with was to pour acid on the remains. Another way was to drop the body parts off a boat at sea. Justin said, “We didn’t just wake up one morning and say, ‘Let’s put them in a duffel bag.’”

  As far as the actual killing of Ivan Stineman, Justin said, “I tried to stab him, but the knife kept sticking. There was too much bone. I just wanted to stab him in the heart. Dawn came over and sat on him. I thought this was disgusting. But I never thought this was over the edge. This was for a higher purpose. Like the Twin Towers (on September eleventh). They did it for Allah. They enjoyed killing. I didn’t.

  “I did not want to go to heaven in shame. I would not back out of this. No way. No way!”

  Wornian said of Justin’s transformation from wimp to spiritual warrior: “It was intoxicating for him. There was a sense of certainty. An enormous amount of power and certitude. He understood full well that the acts they engaged in were grossly immoral. Justin even said, ‘I cried my eyes out’ (about Selina’s death). It was similar to Ivan. I did use a hammer. We just wanted to get it done. I didn’t want her to suffer.’”

  As far as chopping up the bodies, Justin said, “It was not a ritual process. It was slimy and it was gross. I had a job to do. A mission to accomplish. I didn’t think it was bad. It was a sacrifice. Somebody had to do it.”

  Dr. Paul Good’s assessment of Justin was different from the other two doctors. Dr. Good had done forensic work about people involved in crimes since 1990. He was often a court-appointed psychiatrist. Good saw Justin on three occasions. He also spoke once with Dawn Godman.

  Dr. Good administered a Rorschach inkblot test to Justin, and he also read two books on cults and one on Mormonism. Good said, “I’ve read the complete transcript on Dawn Godman. I’ve read the transcripts on Keri Furman and Justin’s journals from 1998.

  “This case is the most disturbing one of my career. It was difficult to read about what happened. The motivations were difficult and complex. I found Justin to be cooperative and genuine in the interviews. And he was not malingering.

  “He did believe that Taylor was a prophet who was channeling God. Transform America would be a humanitarian service.”

  Cook asked Good, “Were they (Dawn and Justin) telling you this was an act of love?”

  Good answered, “Yes.”

  Good also said, “I felt that Justin had feelings and conflicts with what he did at the time of the crime. It was very complex. Justin told me, ‘I was convinced they were suffering. I didn’t want them to suffer.’”

  “I was struck by the amount of feeling that Justin felt. He didn’t want to use violence at first. He was upset with Taylor when he revived Ivan and Annette. He even admitted, ‘I thought Taylor had a moment of insanity. ’”

  Justin told Dr. Good that the killings were necessary as a sacrifice. He said, “The words ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ never came up.”

  Good explained, “When I look at the totality of my conclusion, it was more than Justin could tell me. I believe at some level he knew this was wrong.”

  Cook asked him, “Why would he do it, then?”

  Good answered, “Because of religious training. That there were certain characters, certain prophets, who had to kill for God.”


  Justin had spoken of the sacrifices of Abraham in the Bible and Nephi in the Book of Mormon. Good said, “Justin and Taylor and Dawn were a cultlike group. They were separated from outside influences. Justin became less independent in the group. His family dynamics contributed to that. He was a guy who lost his way.

  “I don’t think it took him so far that it made him psychotic. He essentially made a big mistake. It was his own mother’s suggestion that he attend Harmony. Often a course [like Harmony] can be destructive. It took away his foundations.

  “Throughout history, killing for God had been the rule rather than the exception.” Good referred to radical Islam in our own time. He said that faith by itself was not delusional. Christians believed in the virgin birth and resurrection of Jesus, while other faiths did not. What seemed like divine intervention by one seemed like a crazy myth to another.

  Good said, “Justin was an odd fellow. Believing Taylor was a prophet of God helped him cope. It gave Justin a foundation. It’s always a difficult diagnosis when religion is involved. I have to look for other signs of psychosis.”

  Dr. Good noted that Justin was coherent during the crimes and afterward as well. Justin wrote intelligible letters from jail after he was arrested. As far as a shared delusional disorder went, Good said he had asked to interview Taylor and was refused by Taylor’s lawyer.

  Another key to Justin’s sanity was his own account of how he and Dawn had decided that Taylor was a prophet of God. They thought at first it was the drugs that Taylor was using, and they made him say the things he said. “But then I thought that he might be influenced by an evil spirit,” Justin explained. It was by the process of elimination that they came to the conclusion that Taylor was a prophet. Good said, “That process was a rational process.”

  Then Good told Cook, “Justin retained enough sanity to know right from wrong. The lesson I learned from this case was a decent person can do horrible things.”

  On cross, Jewett zeroed in on the issue of Justin knowing right from wrong. Dr. Good told him, “Justin said, ‘I was totally conscious that people would judge us and condemn us. They wouldn’t understand it was a humanitarian act.’ Then he added, ‘Just because Taylor was indeed a prophet, I wouldn’t follow everything he said.’”

  Good explained, “Justin was in a weakened state, but I believe he was rational enough to say no.”

  Dr. Good spoke of a jailhouse letter from Justin to Taylor on August 29, 2000, in which Justin said that he thought he would already be released because authorities would think others had done the crimes. He also gave Taylor advice about how to lie to jailers.

  Juley Salkeld was fascinated by the dynamics of the victims’ family members and Carma Helzer throughout the testimony of the various doctors. Juley recalled, “Carma arrived late one day and her usual seat was taken by Olga Land, [Jennifer’s sister], and their two daughters. While this testimony was going on, the teenage daughters passed notes to each other and played hangman with words like ‘psycho.’

  “During this entire proceeding, Carma kept her head down and took copious notes. Taylor was the first to be excommunicated from the Church, and it came up in trial that Carma was next, followed by Justin. In talking about Carma’s excommunication—Justin had spoken to the doctor about his mother’s attitude for doing so, for experimentation purposes. Justin wanted to experiment too. Carma wanted to know if God would still love her if she left the Church and experimented. Justin wanted to try the sinning department. He wanted to see if he became a demonic-possessed person if God would still love him. He felt that he would be forgiven and the Church would take him back, which gave him the ‘okay’ to sin. His sinning things were things like drinking, drugs, sex, coffee and cigarettes.”

  Out of the jury’s presence, Cook wanted to call Dr. Douglas Tucker to the stand so he could expound on Justin’s religious beliefs and drug usage, especially in the summer of 2000. Jewett said that nothing Dr. Tucker might add would be new. He said that Cook had already missed his chance to call him during directs. Jewett said, “This is a serious dose of gamesmanship. He (Cook) chose not to call Dr. Walzer. If he intends to call Dr. Tucker, he needed to inform me. If there’s nothing different (than what had already been covered), they can’t call him.”

  Cook: Mr. Jewett has a lot of suspicions.

  Jewett: A lot of suspicions.

  Cook: The remark about “games playing” is nonsense. My client is fighting for his life. It would be a grave injustice to deny this witness.

  Jewett: I implore the court to look at Dr. Worninan’s report. Everything he said was in the report.

  Cook specifically wanted to get in the case of a man who suffered from religious delusions. The man had somehow decided that God told him to chop down trees in a city park. Even though he felt it was wrong to do so, the man felt that he had no other choice.

  Jewett contended that the case was a stretch and very hypothetical at best. Jewett said, “How does this hypothetical [anecdote] help? There is no meaningful basis. I mean, vandalism versus killing people?”

  Cook: I’m entitled to bring in about this disorder. It brings clarity to the jury.

  O’Malley: Where are you going with this?

  Cook: I don’t know yet.

  O’Malley: You know where you’re going, Mr. Cook. Please be honest.

  Cook: I’m not going to respond to that. I’m trying to tie this to a religious delusion.

  Judge O’Malley was beginning to get irritated, and said, “My reading of it (the pertinent case) is that a theory is allowed within the limits of evidence. It does not allow to ask about a different case study.” She denied Cook’s motion.

  Cook was irritated as well, and Chris Darden noticed that it was the only time that he saw the otherwise polite and conscientious Cook not rise when the jurors filed in.

  Dr. Douglas Tucker was allowed on the stand with a limited scope. He could not speak about any religious topics. Judge O’Malley deemed that those had already been fully covered. He could, however, talk about drug use and its effects on Justin. In fact, Judge O’Malley cited People v. Carter and said that religious beliefs were not rebuttal. She told Cook, “I don’t want to hear one thing about religion.”

  Tucker did talk about meth use and the effects it might have had on Justin in 2000. But his discourse was not a “knockout blow” that the defense needed at this stage.

  The sanity phase was key for the defense. In some ways, they had acceded fairly early on that Justin would probably be found guilty of the crimes. Now they wanted to prove that he was too insane when the crimes occurred for him to have made a rational judgment in what he was doing.

  Hoehn spoke of how lucky Keri Furman had been. He said, “She got away from Taylor in time. Justin and Dawn didn’t.”

  Hoehn brought up about the wooden staffs with the carved skull and crystal. These items had been sitting at the front of the court near the evidence boxes for weeks on end, in full view of the jury. Hoehn said of these, “Don’t let the prosecution fool you with straw men and false items. This person (Justin) deserves justice by the standards of the law. It was not a choice by him to be mentally ill. So what followed from it was not a choice.

  “He (Justin) was a true believer and he was deluded. He wanted the love of his brother. A person can lose their moral compass when under the spell of a charismatic, crazy person.”

  Hoehn spoke of the history of mental illness in the extended Helzer family. He said that Dr. Raffle saw Justin for thirteen hours, while Dr. Wornian and Dr. Walzer only saw Justin for two hours apiece.

  Hoehn said, “Use your common sense. What would cause a person who is gentle and loving to do these acts? Don’t let Mr. Jewett distance you from your common sense. Do you want to look for the cause, or just seek revenge? This is an American tragedy. Sanity and insanity are the issues.

  “You had two wonderful doctors who said he was insane at the time of the crimes. He didn’t like what he was doing. He felt that he had to. He was no sadist. He
felt he had to do it for his premortal contract. This was a cult, and Taylor was its leader. Justin was one of Taylor’s victims.”

  Hoehn pointed directly at Justin and forcefully said, “This is a diseased person!”

  Harold Jewett was just as forceful in his presentation. “I’ll talk about something Mr. Hoehn didn’t talk about—the law. You looked at those photos. Those killings and dismemberments were done in the name of God, peace and love? Personality and adjustment disorders are not enough for an insanity plea. He knew the nature and quality of his acts!

  “We saw a lot in Justin’s journal about the idea of choice. The journal shows a logical thought process. They were nothing he got from Taylor.

  “Mr. Hoehn brought up what a nice guy Justin was. Remember what he told Sarah Brents? He said, ‘I’ve only been friends with you to see if I could fuck you!’

  “Those are the actions of a rude, arrogant and asocial man.”

  Jewett also brought up about the disturbing and bloody poem that Justin had let Johnette Gray read.

  “There was a logic and reason in these crimes,” Jewett said. “In respect to the organs [of Annette Stineman], there was something very pagan going on there. There is an undercurrent of a pagan ritual. And those pagan ideas were Justin’s. In his own words, Justin said, ‘If I become demonic, will God still love me?’”

  As to folie à deux, Jewett said sarcastically, “If Joseph Smith was delusional, do we have folie á eleven million?”

  Jewett told the jury that Justin was never diagnosed with mental illness before the crimes. He said there were no psych reports in 2000 or 2001. The first evaluation of Justin didn’t occur until May 2002, and by then, Jewett contended, Justin was beginning to think about an insanity plea.