LOS ANGELES : Couple Slain Out of Hate, Greed, Prosecutor Says
Prosecutors said Tuesday that Neil Woodman and his brother hired two hit men to kill their elderly parents out of greed and hate.
The accusation came in opening statements at the trial of Woodman, 49, and the two alleged contract killers, who are charged with murder in the September, 1985, slayings of his parents, Gerald and Vera Woodman. His brother Stewart, 43, was convicted of the slayings in March, 1990.
The Woodmans were shot to death in the garage of their luxury Brentwood condominium as they returned home from a family dinner for Yom Kippur, the Jewish holy day of atonement.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Pat Dixon said the couple were slain at the behest of their two sons, who allegedly wanted to collect their mother’s $500,000 life insurance policy to subsidize the family’s failing plastics firm.
“This case is about hate and greed,” Dixon said. “They killed their mother for half a million dollars and their father out of pure hate.”
Also on trial with Woodman are the two alleged hit men, former Los Angeles police officer Steven Homick, 52, and his brother, West Los Angeles attorney Robert Homick, 41.
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