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Thread: Steven Michael Homick - California/Nevada

  1. #1
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    Steven Michael Homick - California/Nevada


    Steven Michael Homick


    Facts of the California crime:

    Convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of Gerald Woddman, 67, and Vera Woodman, 63. The couple was slain on September 25, 1985 in the underground garage at their Brentwood condominium after a family gathering celebrating the end of Yom Kippur. Steven Homick, the triggerman, was sentenced to death on January 13, 1995 in Los Angeles County. His brother is serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...vada-Death-Row

    Facts of the Nevada crime:

    Sentenced to death for the 1985 execution-style shooting deaths of oil heiress Bobbie Jean Tipton; her maid, Marie Bullock; and James Meyers, a deliveryman who apparently was killed when he happened onto the death scene.

    http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...ick+california

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On June 3, 1999, Homick filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court in Nevada.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/nev...cv00299/11057/

  3. #3
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    Supreme Court upholds two death penalty cases

    CARSON CITY – A man convicted of murdering three people during a robbery and another man convicted of killing in a dispute over a gambling jackpot have both lost their appeals to the Nevada Supreme Court to overturn their death sentences handed down in Las Vegas.

    The court upheld the decision of Clark County District Judge Elissa F. Cadish who ruled the majority of claims by three-time killer Steven M. Homick are barred because they were filed 15 years after the Supreme Court decided his direct appeal.

    This was Homick’s fourth appeal to the Supreme Court.

    The court also rejected the appeal of Gregory N. Leonard, convicted of first-degree murder for strangling his roommate, 65-year-old Thomas Wilson, after a dispute over a progressive poker jackpot worth $3,548.

    Homick was convicted of fatally shooting Bobbie Jean Tipton and her house cleaner, Marie Bullock, each three times in the head during a robbery of Tipton’s home. James Meyers, a deliveryman, rang the doorbell. Homick pulled him inside and shot him twice in the head and once in the chest.

    The murder scene was discovered by David Tipton who came home to take his wife to lunch.

    Homick was also convicted of robbery and burglary for taking expensive jewelry from the home.

    Homick, through his lawyers, argued the prosecution withheld material evidence on his whereabouts on several dates in January 1986. The murder occurred in December 1985. The Supreme Court said this evidence was not material to the case.

    Homick also claimed the prosecution interfered with his right to counsel for nine months while he was in California in jail on another homicide charge.

    The court, in the decision written by Chief Justice Nancy Saitta, also rejected the claim that the district court jury received a flawed instruction on the elements of first-degree murder and his death penalty should be overturned.

    In the Leonard case, the court said there was ample evidence to convict him of first-degree murder and hand down the death penalty for the November 1994 robbery-slaying.

    The court said Leonard and Williams got in a “heated argument” on the night of the murder. After Williams was found strangled in his apartment, Leonard pawned several pieces of jewelry and firearms that were identified by witnesses as belonging to Williams.

    A search of Leonards’ apartment also revealed pawn tickets related to those transactions and ammunition that fit Williams’ firearm.

    The court, also in the decision written by Saitta, said there was premeditation shown. The evidence showed a ligature was wrapped twice around Williams’ neck and the strangulation took between 30 and 90 seconds.

    http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011...penalty-cases/

  4. #4
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Oral arguments were held for direct appeal before the California Supreme Court on the 6th of September.

    http://www.courts.ca.gov/18827.htm

  5. #5
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    State Supreme Court Affirms Death Penalty for Ex-Cop in Brentwood Murders

    The California Supreme Court today affirmed a death sentence for a onetime police officer convicted in the murder-for-hire of a Brentwood couple, though a dissenting justice argued that the conviction amounted to double jeopardy.

    Steven Homick — one of six people arrested in connection with the murders of Vera and Gerald Woodman in 1985 — was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of first-degree murder, and jurors found true special circumstance allegations of murder for financial gain, lying in wait and multiple murders.

    The Woodmans were fatally shot in their Mercedes-Benz in the gated underground parking area of their Brentwood condominium building on Sept. 25, 1985. They were coming home after a Yom Kippur break-the-fast dinner.

    Prosecutors said the couple's two sons, Neil and Stewart Woodman, hired Homick, a former Los Angeles police officer, and his brother Robert to kill their parents. The Homicks, in turn, hired two men to assist in the murder.

    Steven Homick was the only defendant sentenced to death in the case. His brother was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

    Stewart Woodman testified against the others in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, and a mistrial was declared in his brother's case.

    The Woodmans owned a family business and their two older sons filed multiple lawsuits in bitter disputes with their parents and youngest brother Gerald. They eventually took control of the business, firing their father and sibling. Their hatred of their parents was well documented by employees and business associates.

    Neil and Stewart Woodman met Steven Homick in Las Vegas around 1980 through a gambling buddy. According to court documents, Homick told the men that it would cost them about $40,000 to $50,000 to have their parents murdered.

    The appeal by Steven Homick's lawyers argued that his January 1991 federal conviction for interstate murder for hire in the Woodman case, for which he was sentenced to life in prison, should have barred the October 1991 murder convictions in California, because of state protections against double jeopardy.

    "Prosecution and conviction for the same act by both state and federal governments are not barred by the Fifth Amendment guarantee against double jeopardy,'' though California law provides additional protections, the court's majority opinion noted.

    The high court found that additional state protection did not apply because the state's prosecution included a special allegation of lying-in-wait, an act not considered in the federal case.

    "A conviction in this state is not barred where the offense committed is not the same act but involves an element not present in the prior prosecution,'' according to the majority opinion penned by Justice Kathryn M. Werdegar.

    In her dissenting opinion, Justice Joyce L. Kennard argued that the California case should have been dismissed.

    "The majority is wrong. The California prosecution's allegation of a lying-in-wait special circumstance ... did not somehow transform each murder count into some different crime,'' she wrote.

    "Steven Homick's lawyers also challenged other elements of the California trial, arguing that hearsay evidence was admitted and that the defendant should have been able to be tried alone rather than with his two co-defendants.

    http://brentwood.patch.com/articles/...ntwood-murders
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  6. #6
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Homick's petition for writ of certiorari on direct appeal was DENIED.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of California
    Case Nos.: (S044592)
    Decision Date: December 3, 2012
    Rehearing Denied: February 20, 2013
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  7. #7
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On September 26, 2013, Homick filed a habeas petition before the California Supreme Court.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S213604

  8. #8
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    Hit man in 'Yom Kippur murders' dies of natural causes on death row

    By Adolfo Flores
    The Los Angeles Times

    A San Quentin State Prison inmate convicted in the murder-for-hire deaths of a Brentwood couple in 1985, dubbed the "Yom Kippur murders," died Wednesday of natural causes, authorities said.

    Steven Homick, 74, died at a nearby hospital, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

    The former Los Angeles police officer was sentenced to death in 1995 for the murders of Gerald and Vera Woodman. They were gunned down Sept. 25, 1985, while parking their Mercedes after a dinner marking the end of Yom Kippur.

    Authorities said Gerald Woodman opened the door to his car and was fatally shot by Homick, armed with a .38-caliber pistol. Woodman, 67, was struck twice, and Vera Woodman, 63, three times.

    Authorities determined that Homick and his brother Robert Homick, a Westside attorney, were hired by the couple's sons as hit men.

    They were both convicted of first-degree murder, but Robert Homick was sentenced to life in prison.

    One of the couple's sons, Neil Woodman, was sentenced to 25 years to life for his role. A second son, Stewart, was convicted of first-degree murder and given a life sentence. He escaped a possible death sentence by agreeing to testify against Neil.

    The case also gained notoriety as the "ninja murders" because a witness confused a black-hooded sweatshirt worn by one of the assailants with the garb worn by ninjas.

    At the time of the slayings, the Woodman family was in a bitter business dispute.

    Prosecutors said the Woodman brothers expected to collect $506,000 from their mother's insurance policy. They said Neil and Stewart Woodman needed the money to prop up a failing Chatsworth-based plastic company their father had founded.

    Since 1978 when California reinstated the death penalty, 65 condemned inmates have died from natural causes, 23 committed suicide and 13 have been executed. One was executed in Missouri and six have died from other causes, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.

    There are 749 people on California's death row.

    http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1.../p2p-81893318/

  9. #9
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    San Quentin death row inmate dies of natural causes

    A San Quentin death row inmate convicted of two 1985 murders in Los Angeles died Wednesday of natural causes, state prison officials said.

    California's Department of Corrections said 74-year-old Steven Michael Homick was pronounced dead at 11:26 a.m. at a hospital near the prison.

    Homick was sentenced to death by a Los Angeles County jury for the Sept. 25, 1985 contract killings of Gerald Woodman, 67, and Vera Woodman, 63.

    The couple was killed in an underground garage at their Brentwood condominium after returning from a family gathering to celebrate the end of Yom Kippur.

    Prosecutors said the couple's two sons hired Homick and his brother, Robert Homick, to kill their parents in hopes of collecting on their mother's $500,000 insurance policy and saving a plastics manufacturing firm founded by their father.

    Steven Michael Homick was convicted of being the triggerman. He had been on death row since Jan. 25, 1995. His brother is serving life without parole.

    The department said 65 condemned inmates have died from natural causes since California reinstated the death penalty in 1978. There are 749 people on California's death row.

    http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/30...ath-row-inmate
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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