Defendant was secretly recorded talking about Korey Kauffman’s disappearance

A judge on Friday listened to an audio recording of Robert Lee Woody apparently bragging to his girlfriend about discarding the body of Turlock resident Korey Kauffman.

Woody is one of several people charged with murder in connection with Kauffman’s death. The 26-year-old man’s skeletal remains were found in a remote area of Mariposa County in August 2013, about 17 months after he was last seen alive leaving his friend’s Lander Avenue home in Turlock.

Woody was secretly recorded with a device worn by his new girlfriend at the time, Miranda Dykes. She had already been questioned by investigators, who convinced her to wear “a wire” to record a Feb. 18, 2014, conversation with Woody.

In the recording, Woody brags to his girlfriend that it’s very unlikely authorities will ever know what exactly happened to Kauffman. “He’s just a missing person. ... Nobody said anything about it, but everybody knew,” Woody tells Dykes.

Woody says Kauffman was a menace and a “waste of space.” He explains to his girlfriend that Kauffman’s body was scattered in plain sight for animals to feed on. “There’s nothing to put together,” Woody says on the recording after Dykes asks if investigators could put together Kauffman’s remains.

When Dykes asks Woody how Kauffman was killed, he answers with “shot.”

Woody was arrested in March 2014, a few weeks after the secretly recorded conversation he had with Dykes.

The defense has called Woody a liar who at one point claimed sole responsibility for Kauffman’s death and is now changing his story to obtain a plea deal. The prosecutor has told the judge that Woody will be offered a plea deal, but that the agreement has not been finalized.

Woody remained the only person charged in Kauffman’s slaying until August 2015, when investigators arrested Frank Carson and seven others. Carson, a prominent Modesto defense attorney, is accused of recruiting a group of people to send a violent message to thieves repeatedly stealing antiques and scrap metal from his 5-acre property in Turlock.

In the recording, Woody explains that Kauffman had been stealing metal from a lot, which led to his demise. He tells Dykes that the thefts continued to happen, and the stolen items were never recovered. Woody tells Dykes that the burglary victim was his lawyer. When his girlfriend asks for the name of the lawyer, Woody whispers to her, “Frank Carson.”

Carson represented Woody in a case filed in January 2012, when Woody was accused of receiving stolen property. The only charge against him in that case was eventually dropped.

Authorities say Kauffman, 26, was last seen alive March 30, 2012, leaving Mike Cooley’s Lander Avenue home. Cooley’s home and Carson’s property on Ninth Street were separated by a fence.

In the recording, Woody says about Kauffman, “He jumped over the fence. It was his last jump.”

After the arrests of his co-defendants, Woody told investigators he saw Pop-N-Cork store owners Baljit Athwal and Daljit Atwal in a scuffle with Kauffman on Carson’s property in late March 2012, moments before Kauffman was shot to death.

Dale Lingerfelt, a Stanislaus County prosecution investigator, testified that Mariposa County Deputy District Attorney Kim Mitchell spoke to Carson during during the last week of March 2012. Carson was defending another client in an unrelated case in Mariposa County.

Mitchell told investigators that Carson told her that he would rather represent a murderer than a thief. Carson explained that a murderer might have lost his temper and committed murder once, but a thief will continue to steal over and over again, according to the prosecutor.

Percy Martinez, Carson’s attorney, argued that Mitchell’s statement to investigators is irrelevant to the case, calling it “character assassination” by the prosecution. He also questioned whether the conversation ever occurred, because Carson and Mitchell had just completed a contentious trial and the two weren’t speaking to each other.

Judge Barbara Zuniga determined Mitchell’s statement was relevant to this case. She said that ultimately the statement might prove to be insignificant, but it could be circumstantial evidence of Carson’s state of mind around the time Kauffman disappeared.

The prosecutor is expected to continue questioning Lingerfelt on Tuesday, before the defense will have an opportunity to cross-examine the investigator. The judge on Monday is expected to hear arguments over subpoenaed prison records belonging to Patrick Hampton, a witness in the lengthy preliminary hearing that is expected to continue into mid-April.

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 6:16 PM with the headline "Defendant was secretly recorded talking about Korey Kauffman’s disappearance."