Opinion ID: 821522
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Woodman family and Manchester Products

Text: In 1975, Gerald Woodman founded Manchester Products, which made plastic panels used in ceiling lighting. He ran the company, but ownership was divided among his two older sons, Neil and Stewart, each of whom had a 25 percent interest, and his wife, Vera, who held the remaining 50 percent interest.3 Neil worked in production, and Stewart worked in sales. Initially, Stewart had a good relationship with Gerald, but Gerald and Neil‟s relationship was always acrimonious. When the youngest son, Wayne, joined the company in 1978 after graduating from college, he was given half of Vera‟s ownership interest and a job overseeing accounts and credit. Neil and Stewart resented the manner in which Wayne was brought into the company. That Gerald favored Wayne over his (footnote continued from previous page) and he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The jury was unable to reach a verdict as to Neil Woodman, and a mistrial was declared. 3 To avoid confusion, the Woodmans are referred to by their first names. 2 brothers increased familial tension. In late 1978, Gerald suffered a serious heart attack. While he was recuperating, Neil and Stewart ran the company, to their father‟s displeasure. Stewart testified that Gerald created problems at the company to force his sons to seek his help. In April 1981, Stewart sought his mother‟s reassurance that she would support him and Neil in any conflict with Gerald. Vera said she would. A few months later, however, Vera told Stewart there was to be a meeting of the board of directors. She said Gerald had decided that Stewart would go back on the road as a salesman, Neil would be sent back to the factory floor, and Wayne and Gerald would run the company. She said if Stewart did not agree to Gerald‟s plan, Gerald would liquidate the business. Stewart felt betrayed by his mother. Preemptively, Neil and Stewart issued extra shares of stock to give themselves a controlling interest in the company and then fired Gerald and Wayne. The brothers tried to buy Vera‟s and Wayne‟s interests in the company for $2.2 million to be paid over time, but the offer was rejected. A lawsuit ensued that resulted in a judgment of $675,000 to be paid by the brothers to Vera and Wayne. Neil and Stewart borrowed the money to pay the judgment owing. The brothers also became involved in a bitter dispute involving a $500,000 life insurance policy Manchester Products had taken out on Vera to protect the interests of the family‟s two daughters. Vera communicated through her sister, Muriel Jackson, that she wanted the policy cancelled. When Jackson demanded they cancel the policy, the brothers refused. Neil said, “Look at the odds,” and laughed. After taking over the company, the brothers freely expressed their anger toward and hatred of their parents. Stewart testified that they would make these comments “on a daily basis” to “anybody that would listen.” Former employees and business associates of the brothers confirmed that the brothers constantly 3 made derogatory remarks about their parents. These included wishing their parents were dead. Between 1981 and 1985, Manchester Products‟s financial condition deteriorated. Servicing the loan from Union Bank to pay the judgment owed to Vera and Wayne was one factor. Another factor was the purchase of a new plant. The brothers were also forced to compete against a rival company, Woodman Industries, set up by Gerald and Wayne. The ensuing price war reduced Manchester Products‟s earnings. Eventually, Woodman Industries went bankrupt, as did both Gerald and Wayne, and each of them lost their residences as a result. Neil and Stewart expressed satisfaction at having driven their parents into bankruptcy. In response to Manchester Products‟s poor financial picture, the brothers engaged in an elaborate scheme to misrepresent the value of their accounts receivable to Union Bank, which financed the company‟s operations with a credit line secured by those accounts. Neil and Stewart instructed the company‟s controller, Steven Strawn, to manipulate the accounts receivable to make it appear that some past due invoices were still current, preventing them from being excluded from the collateral that secured the credit line. Union Bank discovered the ploy and audited the company‟s accounts receivable statements. Its auditors discovered $1.7 million in ineligible collateral. 2. Neil and Stewart turn to defendant, their longtime acquaintance, to kill Vera and Gerald Neil and Stewart met defendant around 1980 in Las Vegas through a mutual friend, Joey Gambino. Stewart was an inveterate gambler who bet on “everything there was to gamble on,” including football games. Defendant told Stewart that his brother, Robert Homick, who lived in Los Angeles, also bet on football games. He asked for Stewart‟s phone number to pass along to his brother. 4 Robert Homick and Stewart struck up a friendship based on their shared love of gambling. Robert Homick was a frequent visitor to Manchester Products. Defendant, who lived in Las Vegas, was also a regular visitor to the company and became friends with Neil. Between 1980 and 1985, Neil and Stewart employed defendant and Robert Homick in various capacities. According to Richard Wilson, the company‟s onetime national sales manager, the brothers hired defendant to sweep the plant for a bugging device they feared Gerald had installed. In the summer of 1984, Neil hired defendant, as well as two former Los Angeles police officers, Jean Scherrer and John O‟Grady, to act as security at his son‟s bar mitzvah, specifically to keep Gerald and Vera out.4 According to Scherrer, defendant said that if Gerald and Vera appeared, “If necessary, I will waste them.”5 In May 1985, defendant enlisted Scherrer to plant a listening device in the office at Manchester Products where the Union Bank auditors would be conducting their audit. Scherrer testified the work was done when the plant was empty; defendant had keys with which they entered the building. Stewart used Robert Homick to commit insurance fraud on two occasions. Both times, he had Robert Homick take a vehicle—the first time, a Monte Carlo belonging to Manchester Products, and the second time, Stewart‟s personal Rolls Royce—which Stewart then reported as stolen to collect the insurance money. Stewart also used Robert Homick to do collections for Manchester Products, 4 Defendant himself had briefly been with the Los Angeles Police Department in the 1960‟s. 5 Scherrer received a $25,000 reward offered for information relating to Vera‟s and Gerald‟s murders. O‟Grady was deceased at the time of defendant‟s trial. 5 including from a company called Soft Lite. The daughter of Soft Lite‟s owner testified that Robert Homick had threatened to “ break [the owner‟s] legs, or snuff out his life” unless he paid what he owed to Manchester Products. Stewart testified that in the summer of 1983, while Joey Gambino was staying at Stewart‟s house, Gambino heard Stewart “screaming” and “yelling” at his parents. Gambino told him, “Stewart, you are going to kill yourself. Why don‟t you let me handle this, and we will put an end to it.” Gambino put Stewart in touch with defendant, and the two of them, together with Neil, met at Manchester Products. Defendant told Stewart, “Joey told me there were a lot of problems going on with your mother and father. . . . You are crazy to go through it. You are not well. [¶] . . . Let‟s put an end to it.”6 Defendant told the brothers he would be returning to Los Angeles in a couple of weeks and suggested they “think about it” and meet again. The second meeting took place in the first part of November 1983. At that meeting, the brothers told defendant they had decided to go through with killing their parents and asked him what information he would need. Defendant wanted information about Gerald‟s and Vera‟s “traits,” including when they were together, when they were apart, where they went, and where they got together with other people. Stewart and Neil provided defendant with such information as Gerald‟s habit of walking the dog every night, and events like birthdays and Jewish holidays when their parents got together with the rest of the family. Stewart also provided defendant with his brother Wayne‟s address where, at the time, Gerald and Vera were also living. Defendant told them that killing their 6 Stewart suffered from high blood pressure and a heart problem, and had had a stroke in January 1981. He had spoken to defendant about his health issues. 6 parents would cost $40,000 or $50,000.7 After the second meeting, Neil told Stewart that Vera as well as Gerald would have to be killed. He said if it was just their father, they would be suspected of it but, because Stewart had been close to his mother, if she were also killed the authorities “would never believe” Stewart was involved. Stewart agreed. 3. Actions taken between April 1984 and June 1985 in furtherance of the conspiracy Defendant habitually made notes in a series of “daily reminder” books. Police seized a number of these books for 1984 and 1985 when they searched his Las Vegas residence. Defendant stipulated at trial that the books were his, as was the writing in them. Defendant‟s notes were typically somewhat cryptic, consistent with testimony that he used codes and jargon.8 However, a note on April 29, 1984, included Wayne Woodman‟s street address, “2311 Roscomare Road, number 8.” Wayne‟s parents were living with him at the time. Entries for May 3, June 4, July 1, August 4, August 5, October 1, November 1, and December 2, 1984, contained Wayne‟s building and unit numbers—“2311” and “8.” In late December 1984 or early January 1985, Wayne moved from Roscomare Road to 8420 Blackburn Avenue. Gerald and Vera moved to an apartment at 11939 Gorham Avenue. An entry in defendant‟s daily reminder for January 23, 1985, had Wayne‟s name and the notation “gas on.” An entry for 7 Stewart and Neil ultimately paid defendant $50,000 to kill their parents. 8 Art Wilson, a longtime associate of defendant, testified that defendant gave people nicknames and also used codes. Joey Gambino, who testified for the defense, said defendant was “always speaking in jargon,” and Gambino did not always know what defendant was saying. 7 February 12, 1985, had Wayne‟s name and the Blackburn Avenue address. An entry for February 22, 1985, noted Gerald and Vera‟s new address on Gorham Avenue. Entries for August 5, September 4, October 1, November 1, and December 12, 1984, contained the notes “Ed,” “Ed Bern,” “grape” and “Dino.” These references were deciphered for the jury through the testimony of several witnesses. Wayne Woodman testified that his father habitually carried a comb in his shirt pocket and identified a photograph of his father doing so. Leith Adams, an archivist at Warner Brothers studios, testified that in the 1950‟s television series 77 Sunset Strip, an actor named Edd Byrnes played a character called “Kookie,” whose trademark was that he always combed his hair with a comb he kept in the left breast pocket of his jacket. Adams testified that the character‟s actual first name was “Gerald,” and “Dino” was the name of a restaurant on the television series. As for the “grape” reference, the prosecution called one-time restaurateur Francis O‟Brien, who in 1984 owned a restaurant in Los Angeles that served Greek food. O‟Brien testified that defendant was a patron and had a particular fondness for the restaurant‟s stuffed grape leaves. An entry in defendant‟s daily reminder for September 24, 1985—the day before the murders—contained the words “Fran O” and what appeared to O‟Brien to have been the phone number of his restaurant. An entry in defendant‟s daily reminder for February 24, 1985, contained references to a real estate agent named Sharon Armitage, who had an exclusive listing at 11939 Gorham Avenue, Gerald and Vera‟s building. Defendant told his confederate Michael Dominguez that he had tried to “acquire a room . . . an apartment . . . up in the same building as the man and the lady lived with the dog” (i.e., Vera and Gerald). In June 1987, Armitage was shown a photo lineup by 8 police and picked the photographs of a man and a woman who looked familiar to her. The man was defendant. In March or April 1984, Robert Homick told Stewart there had been an unsuccessful attempt on Gerald‟s and Vera‟s lives over Passover. Stewart was concerned because he considered Robert Homick to be a “klutz” and had specifically requested that he not be involved in the conspiracy. Robert Homick wanted $5,000 or $6,000 for expense money. Neil—who had been dealing with defendant—told Stewart to pay Robert the money. Stewart delivered the money to Robert Homick in cash at a grocery store. Stewart began to feel that defendant and his brother were simply trying to get money from them and shared his concern with Neil. Both Neil and defendant told Stewart to be patient. June 22, 1985, was Gerald and Vera‟s 45th wedding anniversary. As was their custom, they went out to celebrate with other family members. Earlier in the day, two male residents of Gorham Avenue observed Robert Homick sitting in his car at different locations on the street. One of the men wrote down the vehicle license number and called the police. The police came, spoke to Robert Homick, filled out a field interview card, and left. 4. Actions taken in preparation for the murders in September 1985 Defendant recruited Anthony Majoy and Michael Dominguez as accomplices. He told Dominguez he was “going to rob . . . this olderly [sic] couple” and that “he had been after them a few times. Missed.” Sometime between September 10 and September 12, 1985, defendant purchased three walkie-talkies from his friend Art Taylor, who operated Art‟s CB Shop in Las Vegas. The walkie-talkies were for short-range communications with a five-mile maximum range and required line-of-sight contact. Defendant told Taylor he needed the walkie-talkies for surveillance work in Los Angeles. 9 Sometime in mid-September, Robert Homick and Michael Dominguez bought a boltcutter at Rae‟s Hardware Store in West Los Angeles. The sales clerk who made the sale identified the men from a photo lineup. On September 23, in a call to his aunt, Sybil Michelson, Stewart confirmed information he had received from Michelson‟s daughter Linda that his parents would be breaking the Yom Kippur fast at the home of Muriel Jackson. Shortly after talking to Michelson, Stewart received a call from Robert Homick. Stewart told him his parents would be at Jackson‟s residence. On September 24, in Las Vegas, Art Taylor saw defendant‟s other brother, William Homick, give defendant a brown bag, saying, “[T]his is the ammo that you had requested.” That morning, defendant and Dominguez flew from Las Vegas to Burbank on an 11:50 a.m. flight.9 At the Burbank airport, defendant, accompanied by Dominguez, rented a car. Later that day, according to Dominguez, he and defendant went to the office of a lawyer named Max Herman. Dominguez waited while defendant met with Herman. Defendant emerged from the meeting carrying a gun case. The next day, Dominguez saw the case again; it contained a revolver. Dominguez said that he, defendant, and Robert Homick tested the walkie-talkies to determine over what distance they could be used. They drove to the entrance of a gated community where Muriel Jackson lived, three or four miles from the apartment building where Gerald and Vera lived. Defendant called Art Taylor in Las Vegas and complained he was having a problem with the walkie-talkies and wanted to know where he could buy a battery. 9 The prosecution presented records for PSA airlines showing that two tickets issued for defendant and “M. Dome” were used on flight 119; defendant and Dominguez were also identified by a fellow passenger. 10 Taylor referred him to Henry Radio. A notation appears in defendant‟s daily reminder for September 24, with the name “Henry Radio.” A sales clerk at the store identified Robert Homick in a photo lineup as the man to whom he had sold a walkie-talkie battery. The sales receipt recording the sale had Robert Homick‟s address on it. Defendant returned to Las Vegas on the evening of September 24. Dominguez stayed overnight in Los Angeles at the Westwood Inn, where Robert Homick, using the alias “Robert Gilroy,” paid for Dominguez‟s room. 5. The murders of Vera and Gerald on September 25, 1985, and the aftermath About 10:00 a.m. on September 25, defendant appeared at Art Taylor‟s shop with the walkie-talkies. He wanted different walkie-talkies that would work in Los Angeles. Taylor said he did not know anyone who had such items, whereupon defendant decided to keep the walkie-talkies he had. He asked Taylor to call Robert Homick and tell him to pick defendant up at the airport at 1:00 p.m. Defendant flew to Los Angeles on the same 11:50 a.m. flight he had flown the previous day; he was identified by another passenger. He was met at the Burbank airport by Robert Homick and Dominguez about 1:00 p.m. Sometime around 2:15 p.m., Gerald and Vera arrived at Jackson‟s residence to break the Yom Kippur fast. The meal was planned for around 6:00 or 6:30 p.m. According to Dominguez, he, defendant, and Robert Homick went back and forth between the gates outside the Jackson residence and Vera and Gerald‟s residence, testing the range of the walkie-talkies. Defendant drove to an alley behind Vera and Gerald‟s Gorham Avenue apartment building and told Dominguez to go ring their doorbell to see whether anyone was home. No one answered when he pushed the buzzer. Dominguez went back to the car, reported 11 to defendant, and waited while defendant went to check for himself. Defendant returned after a few minutes and said, “the people were not home.” According to Dominguez, he and defendant drove to Gorham Avenue to meet Robert Homick. Anthony Majoy was with Robert, wearing “like a black hood sweatshirt.” In his car, defendant was carrying walkie-talkies, a handgun, a shotgun, boltcutters, and his and Dominguez‟s luggage. Defendant gave Dominguez a walkie-talkie and dropped him off at a nearby intersection. Defendant told him to look for an elderly couple in a tan, two-door Mercedes and to let defendant know as soon as he saw them. Gerald and Vera left Jackson‟s house sometime between 10:00 and 10:15 p.m. in their tan, two-door Mercedes. Dominguez radioed defendant when he saw the victims‟ car. On the night of September 25, Rodger Backman was visiting his mother, who lived on the third floor of 11959 Gorham Avenue, the apartment building adjacent to 11939 Gorham Avenue, where Gerald and Vera lived. Backman heard five gunshots and ran out to the balcony. A retaining wall separated the two buildings, and there was ivy along the wall on the 11939 Gorham side. Backman heard rustling in the ivy and then saw a man jump over the wall from 11939 Gorham and land on the walkway below him. Backman shouted, “Hey, I see you,” and the man looked up at him. The man was wearing “some type of martial arts . . . uniform” that was completely black. It included a hood that covered his entire face except “approximately half an inch above the eyebrows down to a line about even with the bottom of his nose.” The man appeared to be about five and a half feet tall, weighing about 160 pounds, with olive-toned skin. He did not appear to have anything in his hands. The man ran toward the back of the building into the alley. Backman went in pursuit but did not see the man again. Just as he observed the man jump over the wall between the two apartment buildings, Backman heard more rustling in the ivy on the 11939 Gorham side of 12 the wall, but he was unable to see who was making the noise. That person was running in the opposite direction of the first man. Backman testified that the man who jumped the wall “would not have been” the person making these other noises in the ivy because those noises were in “the opposite direction . . . and this particular sound I heard was running towards the street in the opposite direction south into Gorham.” Backman was “absolutely sure . . . that [he] heard two different individuals down in these ivy plants,” the man who jumped the wall and landed on the sidewalk beneath Backman, and a second person running in the opposite direction on the other side of the wall. Backman went downstairs and got up on the wall separating the two apartment buildings. One of the gates into the subterranean garage at 11939 Gorham Avenue was open. He entered the garage and found Gerald slumped over in the driver‟s seat of his car with a gunshot wound. Backman noticed some neighbors had come out, and he yelled for a doctor and for someone to call the police. Sometime after 10:05 p.m., Robert Kelly, who lived at 11959 Gorham Avenue with his roommate, Jeff Carolan, heard five gunshots and a woman screaming. The gunshots were coming from outside and were nearby. A few seconds later, someone yelled, “Call the police,” and then “Call an ambulance.” Kelly, who was an emergency medical technician, picked up his stethoscope and a pen light, and he and Carolan went downstairs. They met up with Backman, who directed them to the garage. They gained entry through a window that Kelly knew was always closed because he passed it every day. Kelly found Gerald and Vera inside their Mercedes. Gerald was sitting up in the driver‟s seat, bleeding from his neck and chest. Vera was partly out of the car and appeared to have been shot in the upper torso. After examining them, 13 Kelly decided Vera was in worse condition. He got her out of the car, opened her airways, raised her feet, and then went back to help Gerald, who was still alive. Los Angeles Police Officers Horan and Kane arrived about 10:30 p.m. They ordered Kelly, Backman, and Carolan out of the garage, made a “sweep,” and secured the crime scene. Horan observed that a bicycle chain that secured security bars on the west side of the garage had been cut. Paramedics arrived and pronounced Vera dead at the scene. Gerald was still alive. He was transported to the UCLA Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Gerald had been shot below the skull with an exit wound at the bottom of his chin. There was a second grazing wound across his chest. Powder burn marks were indicative of a closerange gunshot. Vera had been shot three times on the left side of her body. Detectives Richard Crotsley and Jack Holder arrived at the scene about 3:00 a.m. Crotsley observed that Vera was wearing various items of jewelry, that her unopened purse was inside the Mercedes, and that near her foot was a check for $2,000 made out to Gerald from his daughter Maxine. Crotsley concluded that robbery was not the motive for the attack on the victims. While inspecting the security features of the garage, Crotsley noticed that a chain securing gates on the east side of the garage had been cut, leaving the gates open. A chain link and green plastic tubing were discovered outside a gate on the west side of the garage; that gate was also open. On the morning of September 26, 1985, defendant and Dominguez returned defendant‟s rental car. Defendant flew back to Las Vegas on PSA flight 446; he was identified by a fellow passenger who also saw a man fitting Dominguez‟s description, but was unable to positively identify him. That same day, Neil told Stewart their parents had been murdered. He told Stewart “to stay strong [because] . . . [they] were going to be investigated.” The Monday or Tuesday after Yom Kippur, Stewart came into Neil‟s office while Neil 14 was talking by telephone to Lew Jackson, Muriel Jackson‟s husband. After he finished the call, Neil told Stewart, “That‟s going to be our problem. He says he‟s absolutely convinced that we were involved.” Shortly after that conversation, Stewart delivered $15,000 to Robert Homick at the same grocery store where he had previously delivered expense money. On January 9, 1986, Neil wired $28,000 into Robert Homick‟s bank account, which Neil told Stewart was the balance due for the murder of their parents. The following day, Robert Homick wired $25,000 into Anthony Majoy‟s bank account. Dominguez was paid $5,000 for his part in the murders. On September 30, 1985, a claim was made on Vera‟s life insurance policy. The insurance company ultimately paid the claim in the amount of $506,855.94. Stewart endorsed the check. The police determined that the bullets used to kill Gerald and Vera were from a .38 Special or .357 Magnum handgun, but the murder weapon was never recovered. In January 1986, police surveillance put defendant, Robert Homick, and Anthony Majoy together in Hollywood. On March 11, 1986, search warrants were executed in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and defendant, Robert Homick, Neil Woodman, Stewart Woodman, and Anthony Majoy were arrested. Dominguez had been arrested March 2 in Las Vegas on a parole violation. A boltcutter seized from Robert Homick‟s apartment was determined to be the tool that had cut the chain found outside the garage where Gerald and Vera were murdered. After he was arrested, Neil called Steven Strawn at Manchester Products and asked him to destroy some papers located beneath Neil‟s desk; among them were defendant‟s business cards. 15