John Jefferson
Left to right: Alice “Alyx” Herrmann, Theobald “Theo” Lengyel (El Cerrito PD photos), and Lengyel’s arrest (Capitola Police Department).
A 55-year-old former saxophonist for the eclectic rock band Mr. Bungle may spend the remainder of his life behind bars for killing his girlfriend and dumping her remains in a California state park late last year.
Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Nancy de la Pena on Thursday ordered Theobald Lengyel to serve a sentence of 25 years to life in a state correctional facility for the 2023 slaying of 61-year-old Alice “Alyx” Herrmann, records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Lengyel addressed the court and apologized for his actions, saying Herrmann’s death was “like a cloud with no silver lining,” according to a report from Lookout Santa Cruz.
“There’s nothing I can say that will make any difference, I am sorry,” he reportedly added. “There’s no way to make up for the light that she would have shone in the future.”
The sentence came just over a month after a jury found Lengyel guilty of first-degree murder for strangling Herrmann before burying her body in Berkeley Park. While Lengyel did not contest that he killed Herrmann, he pleaded not guilty, arguing that his actions did not amount to a premeditated killing.
The key piece of evidence that helped convince jurors otherwise was an hourslong recording on found Herrmann’s phone only after the trial had begun.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Herrmann, a California Institute of Technology graduate with a Ph.D in neuroscience remembered as a “rock star, a rocket scientist, a brain surgeon, a martial arts master, and a finance wizard,” recorded Lengyel, who was drinking at their Capitola, California, home, yelling “I could mash your f—ing brain” when she would not go out after 9 p.m. on Dec. 4, 2023, to play pool with him.
When Herrmann states that Lengyel’s drinking always leads to them fighting, he responded by placing the blame on her.
“When we fight it’s actually because you are drinking. I’m always drinking, all day, every day. And the only time we fight is when you drink,” he can be heard saying.
After that, the defendant threatens to kill the couple’s dog to “demonstrate” how he could kill Herrmann.
“You’re gonna f—ing die right now. Are you ready?” Lengyel asked. “Okay. How do you want to die? Blunt trauma or something else … think you should be choked to death? How about that.”
Herrmann was heard gasping, pleading for her life and telling Lengyel to “stop” more than 50 times, even attempting to convince Lengyel to think of his kids: “You want your kids to be the kids of a murderer? Come on, stop it.”
Lengyel replied that it was “too f—ing late for that.”
The recording lasted more than three hours. It is unclear whether Herrmann intended to make the recording or if it was an accident.
The victim was last seen alive on Dec. 3, 2023, when she had attended a canoe club event. An investigation began nine days later when she missed a flight to Hawaii and her family reported her missing.
Lengyel started out as a person of interest in the case but became a homicide suspect after Herrmann’s body was found in a wooded area of Berkeley’s Tilden Regional Park in January. The Capitola Police Department said it “became clear that foul play was involved,” adding that the keyboardist, saxophonist, and clarinet player had been “uncooperative.”
Lengyel’s drinking was the subject of testimony earlier in the trial. One of Hermann’s friends, Aida Gray, decided to come forward and testify after she read news articles about the trial and thought people should know about the “crazy question” Lengyel once asked her years earlier.
Gray reportedly said that “one night Mylo asked me to help with killing someone.” Lengyel was also known by the name “Mylo Stone.”
According to the witness, she and her husband, Lengyel, and Herrmann were all hanging out at Gray’s house in 2019 having some wine when the defendant “suddenly asked to go look at my dresses” in her walk-in closet. Gray reportedly said that she agreed since the dresses were fancy and she did not mind showing them off. What allegedly happened next “out of the blue” in the closet stuck with her.
Gray reportedly testified that Lengyel “suddenly asked me if I can help him kill someone,” calling that “a crazy question” but not one he appeared to have made in jest.
“He looked me in the eyes. He was intense,” Gray said. The witness reportedly recalled her husband saying “what the f— is his problem?” after she returned to the living room and told him what was said. The gathering ended then and there, the witness added.
Matt Naham contributed to this report.
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