Frank Carson murder trial underway with defense focus on forensic evidence

The murder trial of a prominent Modesto attorney and two co-defendants got underway this week, more than a year after they were released from custody during the longest preliminary hearing in Stanislaus County history.

Frank Carson and brothers Baljit Athwal and Daljit Atwal are accused of murder in the death of Korey Kauffman. The 26-year-old man went missing in 2012; his body was found more than a year later in Mariposa County.

Carson's attorney on Thursday told the jury that forensic evidence contradicts testimony from a key prosecution witness who says he knows who was involved in Kauffman's death and how Kauffman's body was disposed.

In his opening statement, Percy Martinez argued that a state Department of Justice analysis found no blood on Kauffman's clothes, socks or his shoes, as witness Robert Lee Woody has suggested in his statements. Martinez said the evidence analysis also did not find the burns that Woody said were on Kauffman's socks.

"Nothing that corroborates that Mr. Carson or the Atwals had anything to do with this death," Martinez told the jurors.

Prosecutors accuse Carson of being the ringleader of a criminal conspiracy to thwart thieves from repeatedly stealing antiques and scrap metal from his property on Ninth Street in Turlock.

The prosecution has alleged Carson recruited a group of people to send a violent message to burglars, which resulted in Kauffman’s death after he was caught trying to steal irrigation pipes from Carson.

In the record-setting 18-month preliminary hearing that preceded the trial, Robert Lee Woody testified that Baljit Athwal and Daljit Atwal were fighting with Kauffman on Carson’s property moments before Daljit Atwal shot Kauffman to death.

Woody also has claimed that Kauffman’s body was buried just outside the brothers’ Turlock liquor store before Kauffman’s body was unearthed and dumped in a remote area of Stanislaus National Forest. Prosecutors have argued that the remains were left exposed to the natural elements and animals scavenging for food.

On Thursday, Martinez argued that analyzed evidence shows Kauffman's remains had a slice or a cut consistent with a knife wound and what appeared to be two bullet holes in his clothing. The attorney said this evidence contradicts the story from Woody, who said he only heard one gunshot and saw blood coming out of one wound.

Martinez told the jury that the evidence shows Kauffman "was stabbed, and he was shot twice." He said there were no witnesses who saw a body being lugged around, as Woody says, or the body being "butchered" at night before it was buried in a shallow grave near the Pop-N-Cork liquor store on East Avenue in Turlock, even though there are lights from nearby homes.

The liquor store was frequented by law enforcement officials, including some who had befriended the owners. Martinez argued that none of these law enforcement officials while visiting the store ever noticed an odor of a decomposing body in the month it was buried in a grave about 15 inches deep, according to Woody.

In the preliminary hearing, Chief Deputy District Attorney Marlisa Ferreira said Kauffman's death was the result of "vigilante justice" that started more than a year before Kauffman disappeared, when Carson stopped calling police to report burglaries on his property. Instead, Carson decided to set up a motion detector to snare intruders on his property, according to the prosecutor.

Martinez told the jury that most of the prosecution's witnesses are convicted felons, "career criminals" who received from the District Attorney's Office shortened prison sentences or dismissed criminal cases in exchange for their testimony.

Woody, who initially was the only one charged with Kauffman's murder for more than a year, received a plea deal and will be formally sentenced to seven years and four months in prison once he is done testifying.

The defense has said this is a case of wrongful prosecution by vindictive prosecutors intent on ruining Carson, a prominent criminal defense attorney.

Carson’s wife, Georgia DeFilippo, and her daughter, Christina DeFilippo, claim they were wrongfully prosecuted in a "witch hunt" by the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office. The mother and daughter were once accused in an alleged murder conspiracy in Kauffman's death.

The DeFilippos have since been cleared of any wrongdoing. On April 10, they filed a federal lawsuit against the District Attorney's Office and Stanislaus County and the cities of Modesto, Turlock and Ceres, seeking damages for what they call a malicious prosecution.

The civil suit also lists Ferreira and District Attorney Birgit Fladager as defendants, along with several investigators who participated in a countywide task force assigned to investigate Kauffman's disappearance and death.

The DeFilippos initially filed claims seeking damages from the county, Modesto, Turlock and Ceres. The claims have been denied, which led to the federal lawsuit filed by Gwilliam, Ivary, Chiosso Cavalli & Brewer law firm.

The costs incurred by this prosecution for Georgia DeFilippo included about $390,000 in bail money, $500,000 in attorneys’ fees, nearly $88,000 in court costs, along with lost income, according to the lawsuit. The suit also indicates that her daughter, who earned a master's degree in fine arts, fears it will be unlikely she will ever be hired to teach because of news of her 2015 arrest.

Randall Strauss, an attorney with the Oakland-based law firm representing the DeFilippos, said the prosecution was not able to produce evidence of any crimes by the mother and her daughter even "with their lies and misrepresentations."

“The DeFilippos were falsely and maliciously accused of murder and other crimes simply because of Stanislaus law enforcement’s contempt for Frank Carson," Randall Strauss said in a news release.

Judge Barbara Zuniga said on Thursday afternoon that opening statements in the murder trial for Carson and his co-defendants are expected to continue early next week in Stanislaus Superior Court.

This story was originally published April 19, 2018 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Frank Carson murder trial underway with defense focus on forensic evidence."