Defendant confessed to killing Paso Robles hair stylist, wrote apology, detective says
After about two hours of interrogation, a Paso Robles man “broke” and admitted to raping and murdering a local hairstylist for whom he had done painting work, and fell to his knees and cried after leading investigators to her remains in the Carrizo Plain, witnesses testified in court this week.
“He said, ‘I was not able to keep living anymore with this in my head. I can’t sleep,” Sheriff’s Det. Clint Cole recounted to a judge Thursday.
Photos were shown in court of victim Nancy Woodrum’s bones, including her mostly intact skull and jaw, lying in a grassy field about 100 yards away from Highway 58 in December 2018.
At the conclusion of a three-day preliminary hearing in San Luis Obispo Superior Court Friday, Judge Matthew Guerrero ordered Carlo Fuentes Flores to stand trial on a single charge of murder for the alleged 2018 killing of Woodrum, who had been missing for about seven months before Fuentes Flores’ arrest.
In doing so, Guerrero agreed the District Attorney’s Office had met its burden of proof of probable cause to file the charge of premeditated murder, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Though initially a capital case, the District Attorney’s Office in October 2019 announced it would not seek the death penalty.
Woodrum, 62, owned The Strand Salon in downtown Paso Robles with her daughter and had worked in the beauty industry since the late 1990s.
Testimony presented Wednesday showed Fuentes Flores had done painting work at Woodrum’s rural home on a property in the 5800 block of El Pharo Drive north of Creston the week prior to her disappearance. He told detectives early in their investigation that Woodrum had been nice to him during the project, feeding him and discussing the Bible.
The hearing represents the first time details of the case have been revealed in court.
Suspect breaks, said he ‘made a mistake’
On Wednesday, a sheriff’s deputy described finding Woodrum’s studio disheveled with blood stains on the carpet, bed, pillows, and nightstand.
Subsequent investigation over seven months found Fuentes Flores’ cell phone had been on the property in the early morning hours of May 5, 2019, the day she disappeared, and witnesses testified that an internet history search found Fuentes Flores’ pornography preferences included older women matching Woodrum’s description and that he had been searching for prostitutes.
On Thursday, sheriff’s Sgt. Devashish Menghrajani testified that a call was placed to 911 from Woodrum’s landline at about 1 a.m. that did not connect.
As the search for a suspect narrowed to Fuentes Flores, detectives interviewed his previous employers and took a DNA swab of his maternal brother, which matched samples taken at the crime scene.
Cole testified that Fuentes Flores “eagerly” arrived at a sheriff’s substation to be interviewed by he and Cole, and at first was “low-key” and denied knowledge of facts around Woodrum’s disappearance.
After about two hours, they confronted Fuentes Flores, saying they had evidence he was at Woodrum’s home the morning of her disappearance. At that point, Cole said, Fuentes Flores admitted that he had come back to the property late May 4 after drinking beer in Paso Robles, to pick up a ladder left during the paint job.
Fuentes Flores initially said he was driving intoxicated and backed into Woodrum with his truck, killing her. Panicked, Fuentes Flores said, he drove her body to the Carrizo Plain and dumped it.
The investigators then read him his Miranda rights, and kept pushing for information. Fuentes Flores ultimately admitted to arriving at Woodrum’s home and forcibly raping her, hitting her in the face and suffocating her with his hand during the encounter.
“He put his head down and said, ‘I made a mistake,’” Cole testified, adding that he said he “was not at peace with himself” and could not sleep at night. “He wanted to come forward and tell us what happened.”
Fuentes Flores asked if he needed a lawyer. The investigators simply responded that they could not give legal advice, Cole said.
Instead, Cole said Fuentes Flores offered to take them to Woodrum’s body, and the three drove in an unmarked car to the Carrizo Plain, where they found Woodrum’s remains near a scattering of small rocks.
“He cried for a minute or two, dropped to his knees,” Cole said. “I feel there was a sense of relief from him that he was getting this off his chest.”
Back at the substation, Cole and Menghrajani allowed Fuentes Flores to write an apology to Woodrum’s family, which was shown in court. In it, he wrote that he’s “a human been” that “mad a big mistake.”
“(Woodrum) was such of a good person,” he wrote. “I’m so sorry. Now I have to pay the consequences.”
Mexican consulate testifies
On Friday, defense attorney Jason Dufurrena called to the stand Javier Cerritos de los Santos, who works for the Mexican Consulate for Protections of Legal Affairs. He testified that Fuentes Flores is a Mexican citizen and that San Luis Obispo County investigators never contacted the agency about Fuentes Flores’ arrest.
Instead, they became involved after they were notified by the defense 15 days after his arrest, Cerritos de los Santos testified.
As a member of the Mexican Foreign Service, Cerritos de los Santos said he should have been notified at the time of arrest, or, or if Fuentes Flores knew his rights, the moment he was being detained in the interrogation room.
Asked by Dufurrena what he would have done if contacted, Cerritos de los Santos said he would have made immediate contact with Fuentes Flores and advised him not to make any statements to law enforcement, and sign no waivers or advisements.
“Normally, I would have explained his basic rights, explain how the American legal system works, because many (Mexican nationals) do not understand,” Cerritos de los Santos said.
Prior to the hearing, the defense filed a motion to exclude as evidence any statements Fuentes Flores made due to the consulate not being notified, an alleged violation of his rights and the Geneva Convention, the defense argued.
The prosecution argued that investigators had no reason to contact the consulate because all witnesses and interactions with Fuentes Flores showed he speaks very good English and affirmed that he understood everything they were saying to him.
Under California law, local law enforcement officers are not allowed to inquire about immigration or citizenship status, Deputy District Attorney Chris Peuvrelle noted, and Fuentes Flores possesses both a Social Security card and a driver’s license, though it is unclear from testimony whether he is a U.S. citizen.
Fuentes Flores also elected for the English option in jail phone calls and searched for porn in English, Peuvrelle told the judge.
“His actions speak louder than the words of the defense’s moving papers,” Peuvrelle said, pointing out what he called “the irony” of Fuentes Flores listening to a recording of his own voice in court through a court-appointed translator.
“Just because he elects for English does not mean it’s his preferred or appropriate language when discussing legal issues,” Dufurrena told Guerrero, noting that the prosecution did not offer any expert witnesses to testify to the defendant’s actual language skills.
Ultimately, Judge Guerrero quickly ruled the case should move forward and rejected the defense’s motion, saying investigators properly detained and interviewed Fuentes Flores and that his inquiring about needing a lawyer was not an invocation of his right to one.
Fuentes Flores is due in court for a second arraignment on Sept. 23, and a trial date has been tentatively set for February.
He remains in San Luis Obispo County Jail without bail.
This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 6:24 PM.
