Jury hears closing arguments in David Woods murder trial

Segu said Woods knocked Dorothy unconscious, tied her wrists together and strangled her with a piece of rope used to tie down the family’s pool tarp. He then stored her body in a structure underneath the pool for a day while he bought poly to wrap around her body and rope to replace the one used to strangle her, Segu said.

He told the jury that’s why police did not find any evidence of blood or cleaning solutions when they searched Woods’ home and garage. The pool structure was never searched because it was obstructed by snow when police were at the home.

A forensic pathologist testified that Dorothy’s body had undergone some moderate decomposition before it was preserved in the ice-filled culvert. According to Segu, that decomposition would have occurred while her body was in the pool structure.

Segu told the jury there are two reasons why the murder was planned and deliberate, therefore constituting it as first-degree murder. The first is that Woods came up with the plan to murder his wife on Nov. 11, 2011, in response to the looming stress of a divorce and the financial issues that would ensue.

Several witnesses testified that tensions had been mounting between Woods and his wife in the days leading up to Nov. 11 after Woods discovered that his wife had been cheating on him with several different men.

Although Woods testified that he and his wife were in an open relationship, Segu questioned why Woods would send angry text messages to Dorothy’s lovers from her phone, and tell police that his wife was “cheating” and being “unfaithful.”

“(It) speaks volumes about his lack of credibility,” Segu told the jury.

The couple’s daughter, Katelyn Woods, said her dad told her he was going to bed the night of Nov. 11 because he had to work the next day, which was a Saturday. Segu said Woods was never scheduled to work that day—the only plan he had was to confront his wife.

Katelyn testified hearing two doors open and close around 1 a.m., but saw nothing when she checked the front door and the garage. Segu said that’s because Dorothy never left the house that night; he suggested the sounds Katelyn heard were the sounds of her mother being “incapacitated” in the backyard, which Katelyn did not check.

He asked if it was a coincidence that the two types of rope found on Dorothy’s body were immediately accessible within the pool area, and that the jeans she had been wearing that night were found in a garbage can in the garage. Woods said he lied to police during an interview on Nov. 17 when he told them that he didn’t know where Dorothy’s make-up bag was; he testified throwing it into the garbage while he was cleaning out their truck. But Segu argued Woods lied to police because he didn’t expect to be held in custody for threat charges and planned on getting rid of the make-up bag that night.

According to Segu, the alleged sequence of events that led to Dorothy’s death is also consistent with first-degree murder. He argued Dorothy was unlawfully confined because her hands were bound before she was strangled—meaning Woods tied her up with the intention to kill her.

His truck, with a police GPS, was tracked driving out to the Blackstrap Lake area on Jan. 2, 2012—two days before police found Dorothy’s body nearby—because he “panicked” after hearing a news report about the discovery of a woman’s body outside the city, Segu said. Woods exited onto Indi Road in hopes of being able to see if police were at the culvert, but Segu said he had to drive past the culvert because his view was obstructed by a hill.

The defense’s case

Defense lawyer Michael Nolin argued whoever killed Dorothy framed Woods by putting the tape used to wrap Dorothy’s body in poly in Woods’ garage.

He said police could not say whether the tape was there during earlier searches, and that it could have been planted because the doors to the garage were often left open.

The Crown’s biggest problems are determining where, when, how and who, when it comes to Dorothy’s death, Nolin said. He pointed to how forensic examiners could not determine when Dorothy died, and that a murder weapon was never found. He reminded the jury that no blood or evidence of a struggle was found during any of the police searches, and that police had to be looking for a body because foul play was suspected.

There’s no proof the jeans found in the garbage can in Woods’ garage belonged to Dorothy because they were never tested for DNA; neither were the ropes tied around Dorothy’s wrists and neck, Nolin said. Even if the poly and ropes found on her body looked similar to the materials Woods purchased on Nov. 12, he said it doesn’t mean they are the same.

Nolin told the jury the ropes used to tie down the pool tarp in the Woods’ backyard would have been worn from the elements, and if Woods replaced one of them with a new rope then it “would have stuck out like a sore thumb.”

He also questioned how Woods would have been able to carry a nearly 220-pound woman into a culvert by himself without damaging her body. A forensic pathologist testified that there were no signs that she had been dragged.

The trial heard how engineers inspected the culvert on Dec. 22 and did not report seeing a body. Nolin said that could mean Dorothy’s body was left in the culvert after that date, which would explain the moderate decomposition that had occurred.

There’s no proof Woods drove out to the area where his wife’s body was found because he heard a news report that day about a body discovered outside the city, according to Nolin. He said Woods took the drive after getting an anonymous note on his windshield that said Dorothy may be at a location south of Saskatoon. The real killer would have stopped and looked in the culvert, but Woods kept driving because he didn’t know she was there, Nolin argued.

Despite Woods and Dorothy’s marital struggles, Nolin said a motive is not enough to convict someone of first-degree murder. He argued Woods showed concern for his wife when he called police on Nov. 10 to report that Dorothy was possibly driving while intoxicated. Nolin also pointed out how a police operator tried talking Woods out of filing a missing person report on Nov. 15 because it sounded like Dorothy left under her own free will.

Nolin ended his argument by telling the jury that Dorothy was engaged in a high-risk lifestyle with several strange men, and pleaded with them to “vote with their conscience” and find Woods not guilty of first-degree murder.

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by Bre McAdam

Jury hears closing arguments in David Woods murder trial

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