2 plead not guilty in homeless hit-run

Two women in their 70s pleaded not guilty Thursday to drugging two transient men and killing them with a car so they could collect nearly $3 million in insurance money.

Helen Golay, 76, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 74, pleaded not guilty before Superior Court Judge David Wesley. They have been jailed without bail since their arrests in May.

They are charged with two counts each of murder and conspiracy to commit murder for financial gain.

Prosecutors say the women befriended Kenneth McDavid and Paul Vados, took out insurance policies on their lives, then drugged them and ran them over to make it look like the two homeless men had been killed in hit-and-run accidents.

McDavid, 50, died on June 21, 2005, and Vados, 73, on Nov. 8, 1999.

Investigators say Golay and Rutterschmidt collected about $2.8 million in life insurance and accidental death benefits.

Prosecutors were expected to decide soon whether to seek the death penalty, district attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.

The case is scheduled for trial May 23.