Key witness recants statements in Korey Kauffman slaying case

Robert Lee Woody says he gave the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office false information when he told authorities he saw Modesto attorney Frank Carson and then-California Highway Patrol Officer Walter Wells in Turlock where Korey Kauffman was killed.

Woody is a key witness in the Kauffman murder case. He and several others are charged in the Kauffman slaying. But Woody is being prosecuted separately and has agreed to cooperate with authorities.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Marlisa Ferreira on Thursday afternoon read in court a letter she received from Martin Baker, Woody’s attorney.

In the letter, Baker wrote that Woody’s testimony would be consistent with what he has told authorities in the past year, including when he explicitly said he did not see Carson or Wells at or near the 838 Ninth St. property in Turlock on or around the time he witnessed Kauffman’s homicide.

“Mr. Woody has also asked me to apologize on his behalf for providing your office with information, which he knew to be false during an interview at your office on July 22,” according to a court transcript of Thursday’s proceeding.

Baker on Friday declined to comment about the letter he wrote to the prosecution. It’s unclear whether Woody will testify in a preliminary hearing now in its ninth month for Carson and five others charged in Kauffman’s slaying.

District Attorney Birgit Fladager on Friday declined to comment about Woody’s statement or whether this will harm his credibility as a witness. She said prosecutors must abide by the professional responsibility rules that prevent them from commenting on pending criminal cases.

In Baker’s letter, he wrote that Woody wanted prosecutors to know he felt pressured after a visit from his mother to incorporate into his statement “certain embellishments that were created by and testified to by his mother in a misguided attempt to assist in the prosecution of the case.”

The prosecution says 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.

After the arrests of his co-defendants in August, 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.

Authorities believe Carson, a prominent criminal defense attorney, led a conspiracy to thwart thieves from repeatedly stealing antiques and scrap metal from his property. He is accused of recruiting people to send a violent message, which led to Kauffman’s death.

Kauffman’s remains were found in August 2013 in a remote area of the Stanislaus National Forest in Mariposa County.

The prosecution questioned Woody on July 22 at the District Attorney’s Office. That interview was recorded, documented and given to the defense in the Kauffman case.

Ferreira on Thursday told Judge Barbara Zuniga that they questioned Woody then because he claimed he had not told authorities everything, according to the court transcript. Woody said he had held back information that he now wanted to share with the prosecution.

In the July 22 interview, Woody said he saw Wells seated in a silver sedan in front of Carson’s property on the night of Kauffman’s killing. Woody told the prosecution that Carson also was at the property.

Carson had a brief conversation with Daljit Atwal, after Atwal shot Kauffman, according to Woody. He said Carson then took the gun from Atwal off the property. Woody then started to walk off the property, according to his July 22 interview, but Wells told him to get back there and help the others.

On Friday, defense attorney Robert Forkner said Woody had a sudden “epiphany” on July 22, when he claimed he saw Carson and Wells at the scene where he says the killing took place. Forkner said Woody has now recanted that statement, demonstrating his lack of credibility as a witness.

Forkner is representing Carson’s stepdaughter Christina Anne DeFilippo, who is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and being an accessory.

The defense says Woody has given investigators conflicting stories, including one account in which he claims sole responsibility for Kauffman’s death.

“Mr. Woody is a pathological liar who will do anything he can to blame others after he has confessed to the killing himself,” Forkner said. “This case is falling apart.”

This story was originally published July 29, 2016 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Key witness recants statements in Korey Kauffman slaying case."