DAD MURDERED TOT, PROSECUTOR SAYS.

Byline: Alex Roth Daily News Staff Writer

A year ago, David Helms was a free man, and his former girlfriend was serving a 10-year prison sentence for killing his 2-year-old son, Lance.

On Wednesday, in a chapter of a case with as many twists and turns as a soap opera, 37-year-old Helms sat in Van Nuys Superior Court and listened to a prosecutor accuse him of killing Lance.

The prosecutor was giving a closing argument at Helms' murder trial in which the defendant's former girlfriend, Eve Wingfield, was a star witness against him. Wingfield went to prison after pleading guilty in the death but was freed when new evidence surfaced.

The toddler's death in a North Hollywood apartment in April 1995 helped spark a change in state child-welfare laws.

Calling Helms a time bomb, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Eleanor Hunter urged jurors to convict him of murdering his son by striking a stomach blow so powerful it split the child's liver.

But Helms' attorney urged the jury to acquit him, saying it was just as likely that Wingfield was the killer. The case hinges on exactly when Lance Helms died from his injuries.

Police arrested Wingfield after Los Angeles County Medical Examiner James K. Ribe ruled the child died from 30 to 60 minutes after suffering the injury, which would have placed him in Wingfield's care at the time. Wingfield pleaded guilty on her attorney's advice and accepted a 10-year prison term.

But Ribe later changed his analysis, saying the child had died instantaneously - indicating Helms struck the fatal blow. At Helms' trial, Ribe reiterated his belief that death was instantaneous, saying the injuries were so massive it was ``like being hit by a car.''

In September a judge ordered Wingfield freed from prison, and Helms was charged with murder. If convicted of second-degree murder he faces 15 years to life in prison.

Arguing her case to the jury Wednesday, the prosecutor cited other evidence pointing to Helms' guilt, including testimony from witnesses who said they saw Helms beat his son.

``We know Lance was a victim of battery. We know he was a victim of battered-child syndrome,'' Hunter said.

But Helms' attorney, Jack Stone, pointed the finger at Wingfield, 25, characterizing her as a chronic liar who also had a history of hitting the boy. He cited defense experts who suggested the child could have lived for at least an hour after suffering the fatal blow.

``Because the case involves a child,'' Stone told jurors, ``your emotions are liable to come into effect. . . . It reaches in and tugs at your heart strings and makes you feel someone has to pay for this.''

Helms' mother, Gail Helms, 55, was instrumental in getting the case reopened after Wingfield was sentenced to prison. Before her grandson's death, Gail Helms had urged the courts not to give custody to her son, saying he had a history of violence.

After the toddler's death she became convinced her son was the killer, and she served as a prosecution witness at his trial.

If her son is convicted, she added, ``it's certainly nothing to celebrate, but there's a sense of justice. Lance was in dependency court his entire life and he never got justice.''