Murder Suspect’s Request to Destroy Papers Told

Shortly after his March arrest, murder defendant Neil Woodman asked an employee at his Chatsworth plastics firm to destroy papers linking him to co-defendant Steven Homick, according to preliminary-hearing testimony Wednesday.

Steven Strawn, vice president of Manchester Products, testified that Woodman called and told him to “to destroy . . . to get rid of” papers in Woodman’s office, including two of Homick’s business cards. Strawn also said Woodman earlier ordered him to prepare an apparently phony invoice and a $735 check to a firm called National Collection Service, which was mailed to another co-defendant, Steven Homick’s brother, Robert.

Five defendants, including Woodman, 42, and his brother, Stewart, 36, are charged in the 1985 slayings of the Woodmans’ parents, Gerald and Vera Woodman.