Billy Ray Waldon was convicted in San Diego of the killings of Dawn Ellerman, her daughter Erin Ellerman and Gordon Wells, all of whom died during about two weeks in December 1985. The jury also found him guilty of attempted murder, arson, robbery and a series of related offenses, and he was sentenced to death. For more than three decades he sat among the condemned prisoners of California. Then, on January 23, 2023, the state Supreme Court reversed the judgment in its entirety. The reason was not doubt about the evidence. It was the way the trial had been conducted: Waldon had acted as his own lawyer in a capital case, after one judge had found that a mental disorder made his choice involuntary and a second judge had granted the same request without reviewing why.
Because of that ruling, Waldon stands accused, not convicted, and the verdicts of the early 1990s are verdicts that have been set aside. A separate set of events, in Oklahoma in November 1985, was presented to that jury only at the penalty phase and no trial of its own has been reported.
Waldon came from Oklahoma; the California Supreme Court's opinion records that his grandfather was part Cherokee, and a 2023 report from Courthouse News describes him as from Tahlequah. His birth date and the details of his childhood were not reported.
He served in the Navy and was discharged in 1984. The court opinion records that military doctors had treated him during his service for severe depression with psychotic features. After the discharge he founded a run of small organizations, most with grand names: the World Humanitarian Church, the World Esperanto Organization, the World Poliespo Organization, the United Nations of Autonomous People and the Exiled Government of the Cherokee Nation. He also started a business called the Cherokee Bicycle Company. Poliespo was a language he said he had invented by combining Esperanto and Cherokee. According to his own testimony he pursued study and activism in Italy, Germany and California during these years.
Several people who knew him spoke at his trial. One woman testified that she was his wife and had met him in San Francisco in July 1985. His first wife, called by the prosecution, said he stole and lied when it suited him. A second wife, an aunt and a childhood friend described his character in more favorable terms. His sister, a psychologist in Oklahoma, was someone he proposed to call as a witness.
Before the San Diego events, a series of attacks took place in Oklahoma between November 15 and 23, 1985. The California Supreme Court's opinion does not name the cities involved, and no Oklahoma prosecution of Waldon for them has been reported. They reached the San Diego jury through the penalty phase, when prosecutors offered them as evidence in aggravation.
According to that evidence, Anna Richman died in Oklahoma during that period, and three other people were attacked and survived. Three experts told the California jury that material recovered at the Oklahoma scenes was linked to the same item as material recovered in San Diego.
The Oklahoma death is the only killing outside California linked to Waldon in the court record. It rests on the prosecution's evidence at the penalty phase. No report says he was charged with it in Oklahoma, and it was not part of the guilt-phase verdict in San Diego.
Dawn Ellerman and her teenage daughter Erin were killed in San Diego in December 1985. Gordon Wells, 59, was killed in San Diego the same month, in a separate event. The California Supreme Court's account of the prosecution's case describes a series of crimes across about two weeks, which the jury accepted in convicting him of three counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder, arson, forcible sexual offenses, burglary, vehicle theft and seven robberies. The jury also heard identification testimony and physical evidence tying Waldon to the crimes, and experts testified that material linked to Dawn Ellerman and to Wells came from the same source.
Wells's son attended the entire six-month trial with his mother, 10News reported in 2023.
Months after the killings, Waldon was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. He was number 399 in the list's history. The FBI's record, which does not give the date he was added, says he was arrested on June 16, 1986, in San Diego after local police tried to stop him for a routine traffic citation.
The court opinion records that in the June 1986 stop the man gave his name as "Stephen Midas" and was later identified as Waldon. The Associated Press placed the arrest about six months after the December crimes.
The portion of the case that mattered most on appeal began before the trial. Waldon asked to represent himself, a right recognized in Faretta v. California (1975). The trial judge, Judge Zumwalt, ordered a psychiatric examination. Dr. Kalish concluded that he did not appreciate the consequences of giving up counsel and probably had a delusional thought disorder. After Kalish also doubted that he could understand the proceedings or assist a lawyer, the judge suspended the case so that his competence to stand trial could be decided.
A different judge presided over a competency trial in 1988. Two military doctors described the Navy's treatment of his depression, and Kalish described a mood disorder, paranoia and a thought disorder. Two prosecution experts said he was competent and likely feigning illness. The jury found him competent. Defense counsel challenged that result through a writ petition, which the Court of Appeal denied, but the California Supreme Court granted review and ordered an alternative writ.
The self-representation request returned to Judge Zumwalt in February and March 1988. She appointed an advisory lawyer, Ben Sanchez, and heard from more witnesses. Kalish said Waldon's paranoia "clouds and distorts his perceptions" and that he lacked insight into his own condition. A second defense psychologist, Dr. Koshkarian, found his judgment too impaired to prepare a defense and noted that he believed counsel would advise him while he stayed silent in court. A third, Dr. Di Francesca, concluded he was not competent to waive counsel while noting possible malingering. Four of five lay witnesses said he could waive counsel. In March 1988 Zumwalt denied the request, finding that his mental disorder made the choice involuntary, that he did not rationally perceive his situation and that he could not present a defense with appropriate awareness of all the ramifications.
In September 1988 the Court of Appeal relieved his trial lawyer and ordered new lead counsel appointed. The appointment was delayed through a recusal, reassignments and a lawyer's conflict. In December 1988 Waldon filed a petition of nearly one hundred pages from the jail, seeking to represent himself, accusing his former counsel of misconduct and stating that his strategy was to surprise the prosecutor with a speedy trial. He also claimed that cooperating with a lawyer while not self-represented would violate his religion.
His second motion was filed in June 1989. Judge Langford denied the first form of it, in which Waldon would act as his own lawyer with two restricted counsel, and agreed to hear a fallback request. The hearing passed to Judge Boyle, who said he had intentionally kept himself ignorant of the history of the case. He received two new expert reports. Dr. Giraldi found no thought disorder or psychosis, and Dr. Weinstein described "an intelligent man who is clearly aware of the consequences of his choice." Neither had reviewed the case file, and both referred to him as Steven Midas. After a colloquy of about two transcript pages, in which Waldon answered "Yes, your Honor" to each warning, Judge Boyle granted the motion.
With Judge Boyle's ruling, Waldon conducted his own defense at a capital trial. The trial lasted about six months, 10News reported. His account of the case, as the court summarized it, was that federal agents had framed him in order to stop his work on world peace, new languages and Cherokee autonomy. He said that men had beaten and kidnapped him in late December 1985 in Imperial Beach, that he escaped and lived in hiding there, and that in June 1986 a man he identified as Mark Williams had planted evidence on him during a second kidnapping. He believed that Williams and another man were CIA agents who followed him through Italy, Germany and California. He denied any part in the charged crimes.
He called a former cellmate, an acquaintance, his wife and several character witnesses, and the defense questioned the eyewitness identifications. The prosecution's rebuttal rested on police officers and the testimony of his first wife.
The jury convicted him of three counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder, arson, forcible sexual offenses, burglary, vehicle theft, seven robberies, weapons offenses and two counts of animal cruelty. It found the special circumstances of multiple murder, murder during a burglary or robbery, and murder to avoid arrest. At the penalty phase the prosecution offered the Oklahoma evidence. The defense presented character witnesses and testimony about his humanitarian work and his interest in Esperanto, and a corrections expert said he would probably adjust well to life without the possibility of parole. The jury returned a death verdict. Both the Death Penalty Information Center and Courthouse News place the sentence in 1992; Jurist, summarizing the 2023 ruling, refers to a 1991 conviction.
Waldon was held at San Quentin, Courthouse News reported in 2023. The Death Penalty Information Center states that in 2020 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held the United States responsible for violating his right to humane treatment, finding that his long confinement under threat of death amounted to cruel or unusual punishment, and recommended that his sentence be commuted to life in prison.
On January 23, 2023, Justice Goodwin Liu wrote for a unanimous California Supreme Court that the trial court had erred in allowing Waldon to represent himself. The court rejected the argument that he had waived the issue, reasoning that his advisory lawyers had not controlled the motion and that his competence had never been settled. It held that a judge who revisits another judge's ruling must at least consider its basis, and that Judge Boyle had instead deliberately ignored Judge Zumwalt's findings and the expert evidence behind them. The court called that approach arbitrary or irrational. It also found the brief colloquy inadequate to show that Waldon understood the dangers of self-representation, given the conflicting expert opinions, and noted that his stated reasons, including surprising the prosecutor, suing his former lawyers, a belief that his religion barred counsel and a willingness to die for the principle, did not show he understood the risks.
Because he had been deprived of counsel throughout the trial, the court treated the error as structural, requiring automatic reversal without any analysis of whether it changed the outcome. It reversed the judgment, including the convictions, the special-circumstance findings and the death sentence, and sent the case back to the trial court. It did not decide his due process claim or his other claims.
The San Diego County District Attorney's office said after the decision that the case "is an egregious case that deserves justice" and that it would promptly begin preparations to determine whether it could retry the case. The Attorney General's office, which had opposed the appeal, said it was reviewing the decision. The Death Penalty Information Center has written that prosecutors could still retry him for a capital offense. Whether a retrial has been set, whether the prosecution will again seek death, and where Waldon is now held have not been reported. Courthouse News noted that California has not carried out an execution since 2006 and that Governor Gavin Newsom ordered the death row dismantled in 2022.
Dawn Ellerman and her teenage daughter Erin were killed in San Diego in December 1985. Little is known of who they were beyond their relationship as mother and daughter. Gordon Wells, 59, was killed in San Diego in December 1985. His son sat through the entire trial with his mother. Anna Richman died in Oklahoma in November 1985; her death is attributed to the same person by the prosecution's evidence.
The Ellerman and Wells convictions have been set aside, and no verdict on those counts currently stands. The reversal rested on the procedure for self-representation; the court did not decide his other claims of error.
The Oklahoma crimes were put before the jury at the penalty phase. No report describes them as separate charges, and none states whether Oklahoma authorities have charged anyone.
Waldon's own account, that he was framed by federal agents and followed by CIA operatives, was rejected by the jury. The pretrial psychiatric opinions on whether such beliefs were a delusional thought disorder or, as two prosecution experts said, malingering, were in conflict, and that conflict was the center of the appeal. Two outlets give 1992 as the year of the sentence, while a third refers to a 1991 conviction. The date he was added to the Ten Most Wanted list was not reported.
1984: Waldon is discharged from the Navy after treatment for severe depression with psychotic features.
November 15 to 23, 1985: Attacks in Oklahoma, including the death of Anna Richman (attributed by evidence at the San Diego penalty phase).
December 1985: Over about two weeks, Dawn and Erin Ellerman and Gordon Wells are killed in San Diego, in separate events.
1986: Placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list (date not reported).
June 16, 1986: Arrested in San Diego after fleeing a traffic stop, according to the FBI.
1988: A jury finds him competent to stand trial; Judge Zumwalt denies his first request to represent himself (March).
September 1988: The Court of Appeal relieves his trial counsel.
June 1989: Judge Boyle grants his second request to represent himself.
1992: Sentenced to death after a six-month trial.
2020: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights finds the United States violated his right to humane treatment, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
January 23, 2023: California Supreme Court reverses the judgment in its entirety and remands.
January 2023: The district attorney says it will determine whether it can retry the case.