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The murder trial of 30-year-old Francis Wolke, who is accused of murdering retired Atherton town arborist Kathy Hughes Anderson in 2018, concluded on Tuesday, Feb. 28.
In closing statements, Deputy District Attorney Tricia Povah made the case for Wolke’s intent to murder. Povah laid out in graphic details the injuries that Wolke inflicted during multiple attempts to take the life of Hughes Anderson, including attempted strangulation.
Wolke is accused of murdering Hughes Anderson in her Menlo Park home by stabbing her in the eye with a pencil, hitting her brain. Wolke also allegedly attempted to behead Hughes Anderson, and his defense lawyers alleged that he intended to engage in cannibalism. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Wolke reportedly told investigators he “wasn’t very good at (it) because (he’d) never done it before.”
Povah told the jury that investigators found Wolke’s ankle brace, belongings and shoes on the floor of the guest bedroom. The bed was disheveled, and they believe that when Wolke was discovered in the house, he had been sleeping.
The prosecution pointed out that Wolke was not seen talking to himself and did not report any auditory hallucinations in the two weeks following his arrest. Povah argued that he showed awareness of his situation. When police officers went to enter the house to investigate, Wolke told them where to find Hughes Anderson.
“The body’s in the basement,” Wolke allegedly said. “I have a mental problem. I very seriously killed that woman.”
Defense attorney Connie O’Brien said that Wolke believed by committing sins such as murder, he would be able to join the 1% of elite, wealthy people who he thought stay young forever. He allegedly stumbled upon Hughes Anderson in the house at which point he heard an auditory hallucination saying, “Don’t bitch out. Just do it, do it.”
O’Brien argued that Wolke’s intent was not to kill, but to join the so-called 1%.
Wolke also allegedly told the defense investigator that he would not have committed the murder if he had found a man or a couple inside the home, according to Povah.
Testimony from a defense witness also painted a picture of a man who viewed women as inferior and was obsessed with his computer programming work.
Wolke’s former friend Daniel Girshovich testified for the defense on Thursday, Feb. 23, saying Wolke had extreme views on society that caused Girshovich to hesitate before introducing him to his friends, according to the testimony.
Girshovich described Wolke as “eccentric, arrogant, stubborn, an extreme outlier,” due to his hostile behavior and his views on modern society. He described how Wolke would approach his interactions with other people in a hostile manner, and would often insult or anger others or not realize that they weren’t following his train of thought.
Girshovich described Wolke’s views on women as “generally negative” and said that it would be in line with Wolke’s character to say he thought women were less intelligent than men. Wolke also allegedly said that the 1950s and 1960s were better, referring to the integration of women into the workforce, but also to all modern inclusion, which he referred to as “societal rot.” Wolke apparently viewed most people as inferior to himself, he said.
Girshovich, who works at a tech startup in Berlin, said he met Wolke at a party in the South Bay for cryptocurrency in 2014, when Wolke was going by the false name Gabriel Ladel. Wolke was homeless at the time, and according to Girshovich’s testimony, he moved in to sleep on Girshovich’s floor that same night. The two lived together for six months.
Girshovich said Wolke was working on an operating system that would give users more control over their computers if they were willing to put in the work to understand it. According to Girshovich, Wolke spent all of his time on the project, rarely stopping to sleep or eat and sometimes staying up for days at a time.
“There was very little else he did with his time,” Girshovich said.
While working on his operating system, Girshovich testified that Wolke was isolated and had an erratic sleep schedule, sometimes drinking five to eight cups of coffee a day.
Wolke refused to get a job as it would be a “distraction to his project,” and after Girshovich left and moved in with other roommates, Wolke would sleep in hammocks in front yards or sleep in cafes during the day and work in them at night.
He described Wolke as paranoid, believing that Microsoft saw him as a threat and wanted to kill him. Wolke also had extreme views on cyber security and took unusual steps to ensure cyber protection.
According to Girshovich, Wolke was “generally pretty removed from societal systems” and had no form of identification or a bank account because “you don’t need a bank account if you don’t have any money,” he said.
Girshovich said he became aware of Wolke’s methamphetamine use in 2017, which Wolke claimed made him more focused and able to work for longer periods of time.
Wolke once visited Girshovich at his residence, called Embassy House, and stayed for a while. Embassy House was home to 15 people with shared interests, but not specific to software or tech, according to Girshovich. While there, Wolke stayed awake for four to five days straight using methamphetamine, then began speaking incoherently and moving objects around rooms, Girshovich testified. Wolke destroyed two rooms in the house, after which he was removed.
In 2017, Wolke broke his leg falling off of a building on Stanford University’s campus that he was trying to scale, according to Girshovich, but he told doctors that he fell while being chased. Wolke did not go to the hospital of his own volition but was taken there after he was found crawling through the streets with his broken leg.
While at the hospital, Wolke would “point at evidence of (the doctors’) incompetence” and refer to female doctors using crude and profane insults.
Following Wolke’s return to Cincinnati to stay with his family, Girshovich and Wolke only had two phone calls, but Girshovich describes Wolke as having highly ambitious expectations of his computer operating system, and as a highly intelligent and gifted computer programmer.
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