Santa Cruz, CA: Prominent Westside couple identified in murder-suicide off Soquel Drive

Prominent Westside couple identified in murder-suicide off Soquel Drive

By Jennifer Squires - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Posted: 09/24/2010 11:55:10 AM PDT
Updated: 09/24/2010 06:54:02 PM PDT

MID-COUNTY - Two well-known Westside Santa Cruz residents were killed in a murder-suicide in a residential neighborhood off Soquel Drive late Thursday, authorities reported.
Gayle Mozee-Baum, 54, shot and killed her estranged husband, James "Jimmy" Baum, 61, around 11:15 p.m. then turned the gun on herself, the Sheriff's Office reported.
Sheriff's Sgt. Ian Patrick called the deaths "a tragic event."
Friends were taken aback at the news.
"Jimmy was just kind-hearted. He was a gentleman," Steve Robertson, a drummer from Aptos who knew Baum for 25 years, said. "Gayle was a very nice person. Everybody is just shocked by the whole thing. The sadness of it is just overwhelming."
Baum was a respected jazz drummer who worked at Ace Hardware on the Westside for several years but recently quit to drive a cab for Santa Cruz Taxi. He had separated from his wife a few months ago and moved to a home on Lucca Lane, a small street off of Soquel Drive that parallels Dover Drive, about a half-mile east of Dominican Hospital.
Mozee-Baum, who oversaw a legal team of 200 for the international law firm Townsend & Townsend, won the Democrat of the Year award from the Santa Cruz County Democratic Party in 2009.
Thursday night, she went to Baum's home to confront him. The couple was arguing outside when Mozee-Baum shot her husband before using the handgun on herself, according to Patrick.
He died at the scene. She suffered mortal injuries and was pronounced dead at the hospital, Patrick reported.
The neighborhood includes single-family homes and, across the street, a large apartment complex. There also is a senior living community in the area and a smattering of businesses along Soquel Drive. The old drive-in and the hospital are to the west of the scene; 41st Avenue is to the east.
Detectives believe Mozee-Baum acted alone. The gun was found at the scene, according to the Sheriff's Office.
The fatal shooting is the 12th homicide in the county this year. Three other violent deaths have been related to domestic violence.
"The details of their conversation and Gayle's motive for murdering James are still under investigation," Patrick said in a prepared statement.
County records show the federal Internal Revenue Service filed a lien on the couple's assets in June but those documents were not available Friday because county employees were furloughed. Friends said they knew the couple had separated but didn't know the extent of the problems.
"I guess she was having a harder time accepting it than any of us knew," Robertson said. "He would make short asides to the fact that things weren't great with Gayle but never got too deep into it."
News of the double-shooting trickled through the Santa Cruz music community Friday.
"It's kind of unbelievable," said David O'Connor, a local guitarist who met Baum 35 years ago.
O'Connor and Baum played together in a band named "Wave" at Shadowbrook for three years and had gigs at the old Cooper House with Don McCaslin before Baum set his drumsticks aside to raise his children with Mozee-Baum. The couple is survived by three adult sons, Cameron, Tjader and Parker.
Baum was a dedicated father and husband, friends said. He had recently started to play again.
"He was doing well, it seemed like," Robertson said.
Friends recalled Baum as happy and always laughing. He was "just a ray of sunshine, always kind and thoughtful with a dry sense of humor that was great," Robertson said.
They also applauded his musical talent and humble nature that led him to mentor and befriend other musicians, rather than compete with them.
"He never carried himself like a star but he played with so many of them," said Glen Rose, a local musician who knew Baum since the 1970s.
Charles Levin, former jazz writer for the Sentinel who moved to Santa Cruz, said Baum "was the most inspiring jazz drummer in town. He was oozing with talent, could swing as well as any New York drummer and, for other local drummers, generous with his wisdom and talent."