Alleged Paso Robles murder victim was ‘nice,’ man accused of killing her told detective
A Paso Robles man had done painting work at the rural home of a hairstylist near Creston in the week before her alleged rape and murder in 2018, according to testimony given Wednesday in San Luis Obispo Superior Court.
Carlo Fuentes Flores is accused in the murder of 62-year-old Paso Robles resident Nancy Woodrum, who was missing for seven months before Fuentes Flores allegedly led authorities to her body in a rural area off Highway 58 in eastern San Luis Obispo County in December 2018.
She owned The Strand Salon in downtown Paso Robles with her daughter, according to previous Tribune reporting, and had worked in the beauty industry since the late 1990s.
Her alleged killer was in court for a preliminary hearing as three sheriff’s investigators and a forensics specialist testified about their examination of Woodrum’s home and, in one case, a detective’s detailing of his first conversation with Fuentes Flores.
Fuentes Flores is facing a count of premeditated murder, a charge that carries special sentencing enhancements for having allegedly been committed during the commission of rape and burglary.
If convicted, Fuentes Flores, 44, faces the possibility of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Though his was initially a capital case, the District Attorney’s Office in October 2019 announced it would not seek the death penalty.
The hearing, which is expected to last through Friday, is the first time details of the case have been revealed in court.
At its conclusion, Superior Court Judge Matthew Guerrero will rule whether prosecutors have proven probable cause exists on each component of the murder charge to proceed the case toward trial as charged.
Deputies find a bloody crime scene
Fuentes Flores, dressed in a blue collared shirt and slacks, sat masked and mostly motionless throughout Wednesday’s hearing as he listened attentively to a Spanish language translator though an electronic earpiece.
Deputy District Attorney Chris Peuvrelle first called to the stand Deputy Roger Degnan, a senior sheriff’s deputy who was the first to respond to Woodrum’s daughter’s 911 call.
Degnan said he responded to Woodrum’s home on the 5800 block of El Pharo Drive north of Creston at about noon on May 5. There, he spoke with Woodrum’s daughter who said that her mother was missing under suspicious circumstances.
Namely, a sliding glass door to her granny unit on the large property was left open with a porch light and an inside TV left on. Woodrum had also missed a morning walk with a neighbor friend and her horses on the property had not been fed, all highly unusual for Woodrum, Degnan recounted.
Degnan testified about how he conducted a check of the studio, finding Woodrum’s bed stripped of its coverings, with dried blood stains and droplets scattered upon the carpet and pillows. Woodrum’s car keys and other personal items were also found inside, and her vehicles were parked outside.
Degnan immediately called for detectives and CHP air support, and closed the granny unit off with crime scene tape, he said.
Under cross examination by defense attorney Jason Dufurrena, Degnan recounted seeing an open bottle of wine in the kitchen.
Sgt. Devashish Menghrajani, who is the prosecution’s lead investigator in the case, also took the stand to recount arriving at the home at about 7:30 that evening, and examining the room, finding a decorative pillow stained with a bloody hand print.
Menghrajani spoke to Woodrum’s neighbor, who said she also went inside the unit and saw the stains — which she at first thought was red wine — but also Woodrum’s favorite sneakers she rarely left the house without, he said.
Days later, he spoke to Woodrum’s daughter, who said her mother had been happy recently after selling some property, and “was looking forward to spending more time with family.”
“She was in good spirits,” Menghrajani testified.
Under questioning by Dufurrena about the integrity of the crime scene, Menghrajani testified that he secured the interior of the granny unit and that no other people had been allowed inside after Degnan first responded.
Woodrum was ‘nice,’ defendant said
Clint Cole, the Sheriff’s Office’s detective in charge of unsolved cases, was also assigned to Woodrum’s missing person’s case. He testified Wednesday that he contacted the owner of a local painting company who had done work at the property in the days prior to Woodrum’s disappearance.
That person referred the detective to Fuentes Flores, who had led the small team of painters that had painted the structure containing Woodrum’s granny unit on May 1 and 3, 2018. The business owner said Fuentes Flores, who had worked for him for a couple years, was present during the work and could give Cole details about anything he saw.
A recording of Cole’s phone conversation with Fuentes Flores was played in court. It shows a chatty Fuentes Flores speaking appropriate English, telling Cole how he painted the unit over two days that week. During that time, Fuentes Flores said, Woodrum and he were friendly; she fed him lunch and the two discussed the Bible.
He recounted that Woodrum complimented the job his team was doing and that he was allowed into her unit to use the restroom if needed.
“She was being nice,” Fuentes Flores said in the phone conversation.
Asked whether he ever asked if Fuentes Flores wanted an interpreter, given his heavy Spanish accent, Cole said he had not.
“I was hearing perfectly good English,” he testified.
Blood evidence suggests blunt object used
The hearing closed with the testimony of Jeanine West, a forensics specialist with the Sheriff’s Office, who examined and photographed the interior of Woodrum’s studio.
West said that in addition to the carpet, bed, and pillows, blood droplets were found on items on a nearby night stand, as well as upon a lamp shade.
But the spatter found on those items suggested a strike with a blunt object to an area of the body such as the head or face, West said.
“It’s consistent with an indent that would include velocity — not a gunshot — and consistent with something that had struck and caused a spatter to occur,” West said.
“Is is consistent with somebody being struck in the face?” Peuvrelle asked, to which West responded, “Yes.”
The hearing is scheduled to resume at 8:30 a.m. Thursday and last through the day. Guerrero eluded that the prosecution intends to present video of Fuentes Flores’ interrogation as well as footage of the discovery of Woodrum’s body.
Fuentes Flores remains in custody at the San Luis Obispo County Jail, where he’s being held without bail.
This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 8:36 PM.
