Sons, Alleged Hired Killers Arrested in Couple’s Death

Two sons of a Brentwood couple shot to death last September were arrested on Tuesday, along with two alleged hit men, in what Los Angeles police said was a murder-for-hire plot by the brothers to kill their parents and collect on a $500,000 insurance policy.

In announcing the arrests, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said the brothers had their parents, Gerald and Vera Woodman, killed and then used the proceeds of a life insurance policy on their mother to subsidize their failing plastics firm in the San Fernando Valley. They also used some of the money to support their luxurious life styles, he said.

Arrested were Neil Woodman, 42, of Encino and his brother, Stewart, 41, of Hidden Hills. Also taken into custody were Steven and Robert Homick, two brothers whom the Woodmans met in Las Vegas and allegedly hired to kill their parents, Gates said.

Steven M. Homick, 45, is a carpenter living in Reseda. A one-time professional baseball pitcher, he was a Los Angeles police officer from February, 1963, to April, 1964, when he resigned from the force for “personal reasons,” a department spokesman said.

His brother, Robert T. Homick, 35, is an attorney from West Los Angeles who graduated from UCLA and attended San Fernando Valley College of Law. He was admitted to the California Bar in 1979.

The Homicks are associates of known organized-crime figures and “had a reputation for doing this kind of work,” Gates said.

Neil Woodman was booked into the Police Department’s Van Nuys Jail, as was Steven Homick. Stewart Woodman was jailed in police headquarters at Parker Center. Robert Homick was booked into the department’s West Los Angeles detention facility.

All were held without bail.

A fifth suspect, Michael Dominguez, 27, also is believed to be directly involved in the killings. He is in custody at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas after his arrest earlier this month on a parole violaTion for possession of stolen property in an unrelated case, according to Las Vegas police.

Dominguez is a convicted felon who once served a three-year term in Nevada, Las Vegas police said.

All five suspects implicated in the Woodman case are expected to be arraigned today on murder charges, Gates said. No other arrests are anticipated.

The Homicks and Dominguez are suspected of having ambushed the Woodmans Sept. 25 in the underground garage of the couple’s Goram Drive condominium after they returned from a post-Yom Kippur dinner. The couple died in a hail of bullets as they sat in their Mercedes-Benz.

The Woodman brothers were not believed to have been present when their father, who was 67, and mother, 63, were slain, Gates noted.

Witnesses said two men were seen running from the garage, perhaps wearing black, martial-arts-style garb, like that worn by Japanese ninja warriors. However, Gates and Detective Jack Holder of the Police Department’s major crimes unit, who worked directly on the case, said reports of suspects wearing Oriental outfits were never confirmed.

Beginning at 7 a.m. Tuesday, 60 Los Angeles police officers, aided by FBI agents, began making arrests and carrying out search warrants in connection with the Woodman killings. Thirteen Southland locations were searched, including 11 in Los Angeles, one elsewhere in Los Angeles County and another in Ventura County.

Guns, Drugs Found

Gates would not disclose what was recovered, except to note that guns and narcotics were found. He would not say whether investigators believe that they recovered the weapon--or weapons--used in the slayings.

Stewart Woodman, a heavyset man whom Gates described as a gambler in Las Vegas and a “high roller,” wAs arrested without incident near his $860,000 home on Hoback Glen in Hidden Hills, while his brother was taken into custody at their business, Manchester Products, in Chatsworth.

The Homicks were arrested at their homes--Steven in Reseda and Robert in West Los Angeles. At the same time, seven search warrants were executed in Las Vegas. Some of those warrants pertain to an execution-style triple slaying in December, 1985, in which Dominguez and the Homicks are considered suspects, Gates said.

In that case, a 50-year-old former Texas socialite, Bobbie Jean Tipton, was shot to death in her home in exclusive Paradise Valley, along with her 40-year-old maid, Marie Bullock. A deliveryman, James Myers, 31, also was killed, according to John Sullivan, deputy chief of the Las Vegas Metro Police Department.

Robbery was considered the motive in the case after detectives discovered $100,000 in jewelry missing.

‘Falling Out’

In the Woodman case, the motive was “clearly a falling out between the parents and their sons over business and, perhaps, the most important motive was the $500,000 insurance policy on Vera that was paid very rapidly by the insurance company,” Gates said.

The Woodman brothers took out the insurance policy five or six years ago and later assumed control of Manchester Products after their parents retired. The company, which manufactures plastic sheeting for ceiling light fixtures, ran into financial difficulties after the brothers assumed control.

Gates said the Woodman brothers continued to pay premiums on the insurance policy “over the objections of their parents. . . .”

“No question about it,” the police chief told reporters at a morning press conference. “We believe the two sons hired the Homick brothers and Michael Dominguez to commit the murders in order to recover the insurance policy.”

Police would not say specifically how much the Woodmans allegedly paid their parents’ killers.

“It wasn’t as much as you think,” Detective Holder said. “It wasn’t the whole $500,000. It was more like one-eightieth of that.”

Contacted FBI

Gates said that during the investigation of the Woodman slayings, Los Angeles police detectives developed information that led them to contact the FBI office in Las Vegas. There, they were provided information linking the Homicks and Dominguez to the Woodman case.

“With this information, detectives developed evidence that Neil and Stewart Woodman hired Steven Homick to murder their parents,” Gates said. “Steven Homick enlisted the assistance of his brother, Robert Homick, and Michael Dominguez to fulfill the murder contract.”

Gates said that two months after their parents’ deaths, the Woodman brothers collected on the insurance policy. Much of the money was put into their plastics business, he said, but the brothers used some of the money for other indulgences.

Within weeks, both purchased new Mercedes-Benzes, California Department of Motor Vehicle records show. Stewart Woodman equipped his with a personal license plate--MELLODY--an apparent play on the name of his wife, Melody.

Woodman owns three other cars, including a second Mercedes-Benz and a 1984 Ford with the personalized plate, FUN4STU.

As for Steven Homick, court records show that he was born and raised in Steubenville, Ohio, the oldest of five children. He left school at the age of 20, after spending a year and a half in college.

Played Baseball

In 1959, he signed with the Philadelphia Phillies as a pitcher and was released to Detroit a year later. He played with various farm teams for Detroit until he was released in 1962.

He was arrested on Feb. 29, 1968, and charged with two counts of forgery for using someone else’s credit card to buy two pairs of cuff links and two sweaters. He was also charged with carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle.

Homick pleaded guilty to one count of forgery, was placed on three years’ probation and fined $250. In 1970, his offense was reduced to a misdemeanor and set aside because he had met the terms of his probation.

In his statement to the court, in which he sought a lenient sentence, Homick wrote: “I am gainfully employed as a finish carpenter and cabinet maker. In this vocation I’ve found myself, and I’ll continue to use my knowledge and skills constructively and never again generate my energies in an unlawful direction. I wish to atone for my wrong and make amends to all people whom I have humiliated and the laws of this state of California.”

Times staff writers Scott Harris, Marc Igler, Patt Morrison and Terry Pristin contributed to this story.