Glenn Taylor Helzer
Not Your Everyday, Ordinary, Wacko Mormon Extremist

Glenn Taylor Helzer, the self-described prophet from Concord who masterminded five slayings in 2000, planned to go quite a bit further, turning Brazilian orphans into "private assassins" who would, as teenagers, kill 15 leaders of the Mormon Church in Utah, according to testimony.

The bizarre plan, dubbed "Brazil," was detailed in a Contra Costa County courtroom Tuesday by Helzer's former roommate and accomplice, Dawn Godman.

Godman said survivors of the Salt Lake City slaughter would blame the killings on the "government behind the government." They would then declare Helzer -- who was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1998 -- the new prophet for the world's 12 million Mormons.

"He believed that by doing that, he was fulfilling a prophecy from the Book of Mormon," she said.

Godman, 30, is the star witness in the capital murder trial of Helzer's younger brother, 32-year-old Justin Helzer, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Godman and the Helzers are accused of killing five people, including Selina Bishop, 22, the daughter of blues musician Elvin Bishop, in a scheme called "Children of Thunder." The goal was to extort money for larger plans, the biggest being a self-help group called Transform America that would bring on "Christ's millennial reign," Godman said.

Godman agreed to cooperate with prosecutors under a plea bargain that will send her to prison for 38 years to life. Glenn Taylor Helzer, 33, pleaded guilty just before his trial was to begin; a jury still must decide whether to sentence him to death.

Much of the trial has focused on Justin Helzer's charismatic and ambitious older brother and his plans to hasten Christ's return to Earth. During a lengthy cross-examination of Godman on Tuesday, defense attorney Daniel Cook sought to show that Justin Helzer blindly followed an older brother who he believed had a direct connection with God.

Jay Pimentel, a Bay Area spokesman for the Mormon Church, expressed surprise to hear of Helzer's "Brazil" plan.

"I don't know what to say to something that far out of bounds, except that the beliefs of the church and of these individuals are poles apart," he said.

Victims Collage

The church and the Helzers "parted ways over serious issues," Pimentel said, but he declined to elaborate.

Last week, Godman, in gruesome detail, told jurors how she and the Helzers had killed and dismembered three of their victims during three days in the summer of 2000 and dumped the bodies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

On Tuesday, Godman described what she called the biggest mistake in her life -- getting involved with Glenn Taylor Helzer.

She said she was an unpopular loner growing up in the Sierra foothills. She married at 18 and had a son. In 1996, she started using methamphetamines and spent three days in a mental health ward after attempting suicide. Her discovery of the Mormon Church soon after that, she said, gave her purpose.

After meeting Glenn Taylor Helzer at a church social on Memorial Day 1999, Godman said she came to believe he was a prophet, an idea he encouraged and that Justin Helzer shared.

"You were just overwhelmed by the sense of peace and the sense of joy that I came to know as the power of God," Godman said.

Godman said that in January 2000, Glenn Taylor Helzer told her, "Spirit's telling me it's time you get to know everything." They drove to a Mormon temple in Oakland, and Helzer laid out plans that included defeating Satan and killing innocent people in the process, she said.

"He wanted the angels to be around us, guarding us, so Satan's minions couldn't overhear what we were talking about," she said. "I'm thinking about what a great opportunity and a blessing it is to be able to be part of this mission."

Carma Helzer

After that, Godman said, she never questioned Glenn Taylor Helzer, even as he ordered her and his brother to help kill Ivan and Annette Stineman and Bishop, then clean up afterward.

"Taylor said he had more important things to do, like sit and meditate and listen to the spirit," Godman said.

Godman said that, long after her arrest, she believed that Glenn Taylor Helzer, "working with the angels," would free her to continue God's work.

"My breaking away from Taylor Helzer has been a continuous process for the last four years," she said. "It's gone back and forth. It's been a struggle."

Prosecutor Harold Jewett asked Godman if she still thought Glenn Taylor Helzer was a prophet.

"You're still not sure, are you?" he said.

She responded, "At times, no."

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