Hearing Ends Woman’s Ordeal in Boy’s Death

VAN NUYS —  Eve Wingfield, who spent 21 months in prison after being wrongfully convicted in the death of 2-year-old Lance Helms, made her final court appearance in the case Friday.

Wingfield was released last year after a Los Angeles Police Department reinvestigation of the crime found evidence that pointed to David Helms--her former boyfriend and Lance’s father--who was later charged with murder and child endangerment.

“I’m pleased that Eve finally is going to be able to put this behind her and get on with her life,” said her lawyer, Michael E. Goodman. But he criticized prosecutors’ insistence that Wingfield plead guilty to lesser charges instead of simply freeing her.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t express a deep disappointment in the district attorney’s handling of this case,” he said. “It seems like this was about expediency all along.”

Under a previously arranged deal, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Michael Hoff sentenced Wingfield, 25, to the two years she has already spent behind bars after she pleaded no contest to a neglect charge.

Citing her upcoming case against David Helms, Deputy Dist. Atty. Eleanor Hunter had no comment on the hearing or the way prosecutors had dealt with the case. But last month the prosecutor said that even if Wingfield did not kill the toddler, she was guilty of a crime by allowing him to be abused in the North Hollywood apartment she shared with David Helms.

Wingfield, who was arrested and charged with murder shortly after Lance’s death on April 6, 1995, eventually was sentenced to 10 years in prison on the advice of a public defender who persuaded her to plead guilty to the lesser charge of child endangerment.

The lawyer, who believed a jury was likely to convict her of murder, made the recommendation based on testimony by Los Angeles County Medical Examiner James K. Ribe that indicated Lance had died of a beating to the abdomen 30 to 60 minutes after he was in Wingfield’s care.

Wingfield might have served out her full term but for the efforts of Los Angeles Police Dets. Terry Lopez and Steve Bernard, who reopened the case at the behest of their superiors.

In a report issued in November 1996, the detectives found earlier testimony by Ribe--the key to the case--was erroneous. Ribe revised the time of the fatal blows to a period when Lance was being watched by his father and Wingfield was out of the apartment.

Goodman, who has said his client is innocent of all charges against her and even took the unusual step of refusing to join in her guilty plea, said he understood Wingfield’s decision to enter the plea to avoid a second trial.

“In spite of her innocence, it’s a difficult choice to turn down a plea of guilty with no jail time compared to going through a murder trial with possibility of being sentenced to life in prison,” he said. “This is what makes the lack of justice in this case even more egregious.”

The Helms killing sparked widespread criticism of Los Angeles dependency court and led to changes in state child abuse laws that had given custody of Lance to his father. The law now requires that the child’s safety be placed above family reunification considerations in custody cases.

Court documents show that Eve Wingfield was born in Glendale but was raised in North Hollywood after her parents separated. Wingfield began her relationship with Helms at age 17. He fathered her two children, although Lance was born to a different mother who was later sent to prison for armed robbery, according to the LAPD report.

Lance was born drug-addicted and taken by the Department of Children’s Services from his drug-addicted parents and placed in the care of his aunt, Ayn Helms. David Helms later sought and won custody of the boy in August 1994.

But soon after Lance was placed in his father’s care, he began to show bruises on his body, according to the boy’s grandmother, Gail Helms.

At 6:31 p.m. on April 6, 1995, paramedics were called to David Helms’ apartment in the 11600 block of Oxnard Street in North Hollywood. They discovered the 2-year-old on the floor with no pulse.

Authorities later determined Lance suffered injuries that included a broken rib, brain swelling and a split liver.