Trial Unfolds Complicated Story in 1981 Imperial County Murder

A bartender and a waitress at the A’s Fiesta Motel in Calexico remember Tom Wood and Robert Corenevsky at the motel bar the night of July 10, 1981.

Wood drank tequila, Corenevsky had brandy. Corenevsky, they remember, did most of the talking.

In Room 116 at the A’s Fiesta the next day, Imperial County authorities found Wood’s body. Wood, a Manhattan Beach jeweler, had been shot once through the back of the head with a .22-caliber bullet.

Corenevsky, then 50, was arrested and charged with Wood’s murder three days later.

Complicated Affair

The police investigation into Wood’s death turned up a web of drugs, a possible gold-smuggling scheme and furtive operations involving government agents, both in the United States and Mexico.

Just who Corenevsky really is, and why he and and Wood were in that hot border town a few miles from Interstate 8, began slowly unfolding for jurors last week when Corenevsky’s trial finally got under way before Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard J. Beacom.

The change of venue that brings the case to Orange County from Imperial County five years after Corenevsky’s arrest is just one of a series of twists in this bizarre case, which has seen political bickering, lawyer changes on both sides, myriad stays for appellate motions and delays caused by Corenevsky’s deteriorating health.

Corenevsky, whose heavy frame has to be eased into a wheelchair to get him in and out of court, has been in custody since his arrest. He has had several back and neck operations since then, and his incarceration includes six months in a San Diego hospital.

But he is alert and in court he makes notes and thumbs through legal papers while listening to witnesses.

To friends and acquaintances, Corenevsky, who lived in El Segundo, was the operator of a small restaurant near Los Angeles International Airport, a family man who loved to fish and take his two Chihuahuas with him on business rounds.

But for years, Corenevsky was also an informant for various federal agencies, principally the Drug Enforcement Administration.

According to some of his previous attorneys and his own interviews with news media, he has also worked with the CIA, a Senate subcommittee investigating corruption among federal drug agents, and Mexican drug-enforcement officials.

He also claims that he helped train Cuban leftists in the wake of the Fidel Castro takeover and that he is a personal friend of the Cuban dictator.

Deputy Atty. Gen. William Wood (no relation to the victim), who is prosecuting Corenevsky, refuses to talk about Corenevsky’s past in any detail.

“It is known that he was an informant,” Wood said. “He’s certainly had an interesting past, but I don’t want to get into it at this point.”

Corenevsky, known as Charles to crew members at the City of Redondo charter fishing boat in Redondo Beach, met Tom Wood on one of the vessel’s fishing trips several weeks before Wood’s death, according to testimony in the trial.

Corenevsky told federal drug officials that Wood had information about some heroin traffic, though there has been no corroboration of that.

But the prosecution contends that Corenevsky led Wood to believe that he could help him buy gold at a cheap price through Mexico.

A business acquaintance of Wood testified last week that Wood was convinced that the gold venture involved nothing illegal because Corenevsky’s acquaintances included officials in the Mexican government.

However, authorities investigating Wood’s death contend that the plan involved smuggling gold illegally out of Mexico.

Authorities know that Wood got $20,000 in cash from some investors in the scheme and had it in a briefcase the day before his death.

Prosecutor Wood told jurors that the day before the jeweler Wood was found dead, the victim showed up at a coffee shop in San Ysidro, south of San Diego near the Mexican border, at the same time Corenevsky was there with federal drug enforcement agent Donald Quick (since retired).

The jeweler had his briefcase with him then and did not let it out of his sight, the prosecutor said.

It was several hours later when Wood and Corenevsky were in the bar at the A’s Fiesta Motel, a two-hour drive from San Ysidro. It’s still unclear why they met there--Corenevsky’s lawyer says his client didn’t know Wood was going to be there.

Made Telephone Call

Witnesses the prosecutor said he will call, including the bartender and a waitress, said Corenevsky interrupted his talk with Wood to make a telephone call. A short time later, a Mexican lawyer named Salvator Vital showed up and met separately with Corenevsky.

Wood eventually left and was not seen again until his body was found in his room, a gun strapped to his leg, his briefcase empty.

Wood left a will in his safe saying he might be in danger and listing with it Corenevsky’s license plate number, which put authorities on Corenevsky’s trail.

The $20,000 Wood was known to have in the briefcase at some point was not found. The day Wood’s body was found, Corenevsky paid $10,200 in cash to his landlord for a year’s rent.

Legal Circus

A circus of legal proceedings followed Corenevsky’s arrest.

In Imperial County, the public defender had left that office to work for the district attorney’s office, taking the Corenevsky files with him. Eventually, whenever the Imperial County prosecutor’s office had to declare a conflict, the case was turned over to the state attorney general.

Corenevsky’s first lawyers were from the public defender’s office, who complained that local politicians harassed them for their work on his case by getting the grand jury to investigate of the public defender’s office.

An outside counsel, veteran San Diego trial lawyer Barton C. Sheela, eventually was appointed to take control of Corenevsky’s defense. But he quit when the county auditor refused to pay him $14,000 in back legal fees.

Seventh Lawyer

The defense eventually was assigned to a private attorney from San Diego, Steven E. Feldman. He is now Corenevsky’s seventh lawyer, and he has been zealously attacking the state’s case in front of the Orange County jurors.

Corenevsky, Feldman said outside of court last week, has never profited from his dealings with either the Mexican or American governments.

“There is absolutely no motive for him to kill Wood,” Feldman claims. “Mr. Corenevsky’s only reason for being an informant has been his absolute hatred of drugs.”

Feldman contends Corenevsky did not know Wood was going to be at the A’s Fiesta Motel in Calexico. Corenevsky was there, he contends, on other business involving his role as an informant on the drug trade between Mexico and the United States.

Lack of Proof

Further, Feldman contends that the state cannot prove that Wood even had the $20,000 in his briefcase when he left Manhattan Beach to head to the border towns.

Feldman said he would explain in due time why Corenevsky showed up the next day with $10,200.

Prosecutor Wood is tight-lipped about what Corenevsky’s business with jeweler Wood was at the A’s Fiesta, or what he and Salvator Vital, the Mexican lawyer, talked about. Vital is listed as a prosecution witness.

Asked if Vital will cooperate with the attorney general’s office, prosecutor Wood smiled broadly and said, “That’s a good question. We intend to call him as a witness. It remains to be seen whether he will appear.”