Daily Archives: April 26, 2016

HER MIND IS LIKE A SIEVE

BY WILLIAM THOMAS JENSEN

04/26/2016

Today was a total waste of time. Prosecution witness Beverly Woody answered most of the questions by saying: “I don’t remember.” She is at the point where she can’t remember who told her what, or when anything happened. Beverly could not remember anything concerning the three audio tapes that we listen to yesterday. Time after time, she denied saying things on these tapes that she heard herself say yesterday. For the life of me, I don’t know how the judge can rely on any of her testimony.

Court starts out at 9:50 AM with defense attorney Robert Forkner requesting Robert Woody’s jail logs. He wants all recorded Stanislaus County logs concerning Robert Woody while he has been incarcerated. He also wants all of the phone logs for Robert Woody to be turned over.

Prosecuting DA Marlissa Fereirra makes an explanation about an instance where Steve Jacobson stayed with Beverly Woody at her house and spoke to her before Kirk Bunch came over and did a recorded interview. She stated that Steve Jacobson stayed with Beverly Woody until Kirk Bunch came over because of her medical condition, and immobility. Steve Jacobson did no recording of his conversation with Beverly Woody, and waited for Kirk Bunch to do the recorded interview. This interview was done on February 26, 2014.

Talk then goes to an instance on August 19, 2015 where Steve Jacobson had Robert Woody at the DA’s office awaiting a waiver of confidentiality. Beverly Woody was allowed to visit with her son Robert Woody, and this visit was unrecorded. During this visit, Beverly was shown a letter that was allegedly written by Robin Attenhoffer on her death bed. No recording of this was done as well.

Prosecuting DA Marlissa Fereirra talks about how the reenactments done at three different locations, and their corresponding reports and videos have all been discovered. She talks about how all the jail calls for Walter Wells, Daljit Atwall, and Baljit Athwall have been discovered as well. Robert Forkner asks her if these calls were from the downtown jail. Marlissa tells Forkner they were done at the public safety center. Forkner then brings up the fact that Marlissa, two days ago, had said that no calls are recorded at the public safety center. Forkner now requests the phone calls from Robert Woody while he was at the public safety center. He was told two days ago that they had not been recorded. Marlissa tells the court that she will not be using phone calls concerning Walter Wells in the preliminary trial.

Now comes the totally useless cross-examination of Beverly Woody. As the title says, her mind is like a sieve. It is the opinion of several people sitting around me that her memory is actually very selective. I am not sure if this is the case, or she is suffering from the effects of Valley fever.

At 10:04 AM, defense attorney Robert Forkner asks Beverly Woody if she talked to her son Robert on Friday of last week. I believe she said that she had done so. Talk goes to Sunny Attenhoffer telling Robert Woody that she needed his help in order to get her children back. Forkner asks Beverly Woody if Miranda Dykes had ever talked to her about an attorney. Beverly said: “No.” Forkner is now done with cross-examination.

Defense attorney Jesse Garcia now takes over on cross examination of Beverly Woody. Jesse Garcia starts asking a series of questions about the three recordings that Beverly listened to yesterday. He asks Beverly if she recognized her voice. Beverly says that her voice sounded like an old person. Garcia asks Beverly about the first recording that was done with Kirk Bunch and Steve Jacobson. He asks her if that was the first time he had met Steve Jacobson. Beverly says she is not sure. Garcia asks Beverly whether Kirk Bunch and Steve Jacobson were present on July 13, 2014 during the police search of her home. She said: “No.” Beverly talks about how a masked police officer had threatened to kill Robert Woody if he found him in the house. The officer told this to Beverly as he was walking out of the house.

Beverly says that she lives two doors down from Pop N Cork liquors on the same side the street. Talk goes to a February 26, 2014 incident where Kirk Bunch told Beverly that Robert had made some threats against one of the prosecution’s main witnesses. Beverly admitted that. Now starts a long series of “I don’t remember” responses from Beverly. Jesse asks her if she did not tell the police that her son Robert buried the body of Korey Kaufman. Beverly says: “I don’t remember.” This seemed to be her frequent response today on questions she didn’t want to answer. Beverly denied that Kirk Bunch had told Robert that he would get consideration if he cooperated. This could be heard clearly yesterday on one of the recordings, but she couldn’t remember this. Jesse asks Beverly if she heard the tape. Beverly still insists that she can’t remember hearing Kirk Bunch offer consideration for cooperation. Judge Zuniga tells Jesse Garcia that Beverly has already been impeached.

Jesse Garcia asks Beverly if Bunch told her that a trap had been set for Korey Kaufman. Beverly denies that Bunch had said a trap was set. This could be clearly heard in the tapes we listened to yesterday. Jesse asks Beverly if Kirk Bunch told her that Robert was involved with a homicide involving special circumstances. Beverly says: “No.” This also could be heard clearly in the tapes. Beverly also denies hearing Bunch say that it was a premeditated murder. This was also on the tapes. Beverly is essentially denying everything we heard yesterday.

Jesse Garcia then asks Beverly if the Athwall’s cousins were involved. Beverly talks about a cousin, with the nickname of “Snake”, and how Daljit Atwall and her son Robert gave him a ride to the airport.

Jesse then asks Beverly about a time on February 26, 2014 where she told law enforcement that Korey Kaufman had been killed on his own property. Beverly denies saying this. This conflicts with reports that have been discovered.

Beverly Woody is asked by Jesse Garcia how many people were on the Frank Carson property that night. Beverly says there were four on the property, plus one outside of the property. Jesse asks Beverly if in February 2014 Kirk Bunch had told you four people were on the property. Beverly denies this. This is in direct conflict with testimony we have heard during this preliminary trial. Jesse Garcia asks Beverly if Kirk Bunch told Robert he could work something out for Robert. Beverly says: “No.” Yesterday, we could hear Kirk Bunch clearly make that statement on one of the tapes. Jesse Garcia asks Beverly if Kirk Bunch had told her that Robert Woody knows specific facts that only the killer would know. Beverly says: “No.” This could be heard on the tapes as well. Jesse asks Beverly if somebody else told her that. Beverly says: “No.” Jesse asks Beverly if she had told Kirk Bunch the truth. Beverly says: “I can’t remember.” Jesse Garcia asks Beverly if she lied for her son. Beverly says: “I don’t know.”

Beverly admits that it was at Pop N Cork that Robert Woody pulled Baljit Athwall off of Korey Kaufman. At this point, defense attorney Robert Forkner complains about Marlissa Fereirra making “Speaking objections.” Forkner’s objection was overruled. Beverly now states that this incident happened at a Hilmar bar. She seems to be getting increasingly confused on the stand.

Jesse Garcia talks about February 26, 2014 where Kirk Bunch tells her that Baljit Athwall and somebody beat Korey Kaufman. Bunch told Beverly that: “Your son was there and that is how he knows what happened.” Beverly denies that Bunch said this to her. This could clearly be heard on one of the tapes.

Jesse Garcia asks Beverly Woody how many times she talked to Robert Woody about Korey Kaufman being killed. Beverly says twice before the arrest, and once after Robert was arrested.

It is 11:28 AM, and we return from a 15-minute break. Jesse tells Beverly Woody that she told Kirk Bunch and Steve Jacobson that Korey Kaufman was killed on his own property, and that she knew that was a lie. Beverly says: “I can’t remember.”

Jesse Garcia asks Beverly if she and her family followed the newspaper articles and Internet articles during the investigation of her son. Beverly denied that they did this. Beverly then admitted that they read the Turlock Journal at times. She says that after her home was searched on July 12, 2014 her grandson read an article in the newspaper to her. Beverly said she did not know if anyone read Internet articles to her during the investigation.

Talk then goes to the search of Pop N Cork liquors on July 12, 2014. Beverly said all her family saw the search in progress. She said the police took her family out of the house, and held them at gunpoint. Beverly lives two doors down from the liquor store.

Jesse then asks Beverly whether on August 19, 2015 she talked to law enforcement and told them information that she had learned from Robin Attenhoffer. Beverly said: “Yes.” Jesse asks her if this information was a lie. Beverly says: “No.” Jesse Garcia: “When you said Korey would not talk to you, was that a lie?” Beverly: “Yes.” Jesse Garcia asks Beverly whether Kirk Bunch told her that there was an upcoming bail hearing for the defendant’s, and Beverly said: “I can’t remember.”

It was brought out that the Athwalls had bought two boxes of Nyquil for Beverly per month while she had pneumonia. Beverly said that her son did lots of work for the Athwalls for all that stuff. We break for lunch.

At 1:53 PM, Jesse Garcia continues his cross-examination of Beverly Woody. He asks Beverly Woody if she recalls when she first learned that Korey Kaufman’s body had been recovered. Beverly can’t remember this. Jesse Garcia asks Beverly whether on February 26, 2014 Kirk Bunch and Steve Jacobson talked to her about Korey Kaufman. She couldn’t remember this. Garcia asks Beverly if her son Robert had confessed and bragged about the killing of Korey Kaufman. She could not remember this. Jesse Garcia tries to get Beverly to admit that she had heard about newspaper articles that gave details about Korey Kaufman. Beverly says that she had heard stories about Korey Kaufman being cut up etc.

Approximately one month after Korey Kaufman went missing, she heard about deer hunters finding the body. She is not sure if she heard about this from newspaper articles. Jesse Garcia asks Beverly whether on the August 19, 2015 interview Steve Jacobson told her that Korey Kaufman’s fingers and toes were cut off. Beverly said: “Yes.” Beverly rambles on about how Baljit held Korey Kaufman’s hands and Daljit held his legs while he was being cut up. Jesse Garcia asks her if Robert Woody had told her that this. She could not remember.

Beverly Woody says that when she visits her son they don’t talk about anything but the grandbabies. She says that during these visits Steve Jacobson stands by the door, and another person is outside of the door. These visits occur at the district attorney’s office. Beverly said that on the day that she was shown the infamous letter, she talked about it with the investigators.

Beverly Woody is handed a copy of this letter and says ‘It looks like it, I don’t know.” Jesse Garcia asks Beverly that on August 19, 2015, when Steve Jacobson handed the letter to her, she recognized it. She said: “Yes.”

Beverly Woody said Robin Attenhoffer told her that Robert Woody had said that Korey Kaufman had been beaten and shot. Beverly says that she heard that they recovered a bullet, a jacket, and three boots. I wonder what the third boot was for? She couldn’t remember who told her this. She denied that family members had told her this. She said people on the streets told a lot of stories about Korey Kaufman.

Talk then goes to how she had met Frank Carson. Beverly said Frank was her son’s lawyer at one time. Frank represented her son on a stolen truck case, and she met him in the courtroom.

Talk then goes to how allegedly Baljit Athwall and Daljit Atwall, and Robert Woody transported Korey Kauffman’s body to Pop N Cork. She said Daljit went ahead of them. She said the body was buried on the side of Pop N Cork, and was moved to the mountains.

Beverly Woody said she has spoken to her son on the phone one to two times per month while he has been in jail. She says he is in a cell by himself 23 hours per day, and can’t talk to anyone. While Robert was held in Modesto, she was able to visit him three times a week. She stated that she has visited him 50 times or more.

It is around 3:00 PM, and we go on a break. I can’t take any more of this useless testimony, and I head home. Judge Zuniga told Marlissa Fereirra that she could not see any good coming from Beverly Woody’s testimony, when it began days ago. I certainly think she was right. Once we are done with her testimony, we will get Patrick Hampton back on the stand. That should be interesting to see.

I must once again commend the Modesto Bee reporter for watching today’s testimony. It seems as though he has an interest in seeing this trial firsthand, and not depending on others to feed him information.

Testimony resumes tomorrow at 9:30 AM.

Sincerely; William Thomas Jensen (Tom)

MOMMA NOT ANGRY FOR GETTING BABY IN TROUBLE?

By Marty Carlson

4-26-2016

Will the afternoon resumed with Jesse Garcia asking Beverly Woody if she had any recall when the remains of Korey Kaufman had been found, which she did not. The attorney referenced that February 26 of 2014 interview when they were talking about Corey Kaufman was Steve Jacobson and Kirk bunch. Robert Woody had confessed to the crime at this point, but stated she could not remember the conversation. She stated that she kept hearing stories from all kinds of people that came around about Corey being cut up in 2012 after his disappearance, that also heard about him being in the mountains through the grapevine on the streets.

She stated at some point her daughter Mary had been going on the Internet and sharing some information with her. And one of the interviews referred to was Steve Jacobson where he stated that all of Korey’s fingers and toes the been cut off and she had stated that Robert told her that the out walls and held Corey down and cut off his fingers and toes.

She also stated that since August 2015 to this day she had only done one interview that was on August 19, 2015. She stated that every court date that Robert has in Stanislaus County she gets a visit in the DA’s office with her son as she cannot make the trip to where he is. During those visits Steve Jacobson is always in the room with a second officer standing outside the door.

She stated that Steve Jacobson had showed her the letter supposedly written by Robin Woody and asked her if that was the letter that Robin had written and she said it look like it. She was unable to tell the contents of the letter because she has never learned to read. This interview was done at the DA’s office on one of Robert visits after court.

Beverly Woody also stated that they found a bullet, three boots and a jacket with the remains. She also stated that everybody was telling her that Corey had been chopped up and had talked to his stepmom on several occasions where she had stopped by the visit and have a cigarette with them. She also stated that some of Korey’s relatives kept telling Beverly that Robert would not do such a thing they did not feel he was capable. She did say that there was a lot of press coverage at the time of the arrest and constantly saw pictures of her son and their home on the TV and in the papers and on the Internet. She had taken a close look at all the pictures of the people arrested in the case and realize she knew all of them.

She knew Carson from a prior arrest that her son had, for stealing a car in getting beaten by the police badly, and Frank Carson had represented him in that case. Apparently Frank Carson represented her other son in some other cases two. She stated that the out well brothers and Robert had transported the body from the scene to pop N Cork, where Corey Kaufman had been buried on the property in the garden area but later moved to the mountains.

She stated she talked to Robert on the phone one or two times a month where he is now located, and previously had talked to about three times a week from the jail. A question about polygraphs was was asked objected to and not allowed by the judge.

Beverly Woody stated she had been taking meds that she is on now for about nine years for a lot of health issues, and right now she is running on one lung. She stated there was a time that she did not know or remember anything because of the some of the pain medications that she was on at the time and still has trouble this day.

She was also asked about some of her family members talking about possibly being called as witnesses in the case that she could not remember, and she was asked is that due to the medications, she said she was not sure. She also said she cannot remember a conversation that Robert Woody had with Frank Carson but had nothing to do with Korey Kaufman death the one of his court cases.

Jesse Garcia then rested his cross and Percy Martinez began.

He also asked about the confession letter that Steve Jacobson provided for Beverly and her daughters to view. She said that the letter was probably written in the fall because it was cold and sometime around 90 days prior to Robin’s death, which Robin had succumbed to cancer shortly after Christmas of 2014. She said the Robin had worked up until the last month before passing away and she had moved away about two days prior to her death to live with her aunt who is a nurse and more prepared to care for her.

The attorney then began asking about two weeks after Robin had passed away Miranda Dykes had moved in to the house and was considered the girlfriend of Robert Woody. She also stated that her husband at times worked often on at the pop N Cork as when he was between jobs and they always worked him on consideration as he did the work first and then paid him or gave him free products. He had done this for about six months and then finally went back to work at his regular job with her brother.

It was also mentioned that the Atwals had given the Woody’s some furniture like a couch, a TV, a refrigerator, shoes, close, and in fact had given her husband some work pants.

At this point Mme. DA objected to the liner questing saying it’s out of the scope of direct and the judge stated that is her understanding that the DA’s theory is that the out walls were given Robert Woody money and trypsin things to keep his silence for the crime, and the defense is showing that they were doing a lot of things for them prior to 2012.

Also apparently one of the Atwal brothers had given Beverly Woody a dog about four years ago which she still has to this day.

Percy Martinez then ended his questioning of this witness and Martha Magana wanted to recross miss Woody.

She was asked again about Robin going to her aunt’s house two days before passing, she asked about Robert getting caught in a stolen car in which when he was arrested he was beaten badly by the police. Beverly Woody claimed that he had taken the car from his brother who had stolen it was trying to return it.

Martha Magana brought out for several years before Corey Kaufman’s death the Atwals had provided with Robert Woody many things and payment because they were concerned about him having cash and his drug addictions. Beverly Woody’s Denying but had admitted earlier that she had been receiving several things from the out walls like her like will, sodas, beer, and many other merchandise type items from the out walls for free.

Beverly Woody also went on to say that Robert Woody was wrong for helping the Atwals with the body and covering it up, but insists he did not kill Korey Kaufman.

Martha Magana asked her if she is testifying trying to make sure that Robert is not the only person to get in trouble and go to jail or prison in this case, Beverly Woody look kind of tired and reserved at that point and never really answered. She was then asked if she was angry at the Atwals, to which she replied no not really why would I be.

Martha Magana then stated that she had no further question for this witness and is excruciating long ordeal for this witness and everybody else in the room is finally over. Mme. DA was asked if you she had any redirect and her response was something to the effect was “not a chance.” I think she realized that putting miss Woody on was a mistake and that she had been warned about it prior to doing it.

To be perfectly honest with you I see no benefit of this testimony to the DA in this case, but it seems that she did help the defense somewhat. Especially when she stated that she was more than willing to lie for her son.

Court continued until tomorrow at 930 and expecting the testimony of Patrick Hampton. That are to be interesting