Inmate testifies suspect knew details of crime

A former Douglas County Jail inmate testified Thursday that murder suspect Karen Bodden relayed extensive details of her husband's death while the two women were incarcerated.

Ramona Madore was brought from a women's correctional center in North Las Vegas where she is serving a prison sentence for probation violation on a forgery charge.

Madore said she became friendly with Bodden in September 2006 while both were in Douglas County Jail.

"When I first met her (Bodden), she told me she was in jail for embezzling money from the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles)," Madore said.

Bodden was arrested Sept. 11, 2006, and originally charged with embezzling money from her husband Robin Bodden's personal and business accounts. She was charged with the 50-year-old aircraft mechanic's murder in February 2007.

Madore said she couldn't remember the exact date Bodden started discussing the murder.

"She told me that her husband would fly Mexican Mafia to various places and they possibly were the ones who murdered her husband," Madore said.

Madore said Bodden was detailed in her account of how the murder was carried out.

"She told me they (law enforcement) were investigating his murder. She said he had been shot twice at his place of work, wrapped in a blanket and a cherry picker picked up his body and put it in his truck. She said he was buried in the desert and a friend of his found the body," Madore said.

Madore said she asked Bodden if she killed her husband and the defendant said no.

Madore said Bodden told her she feared for her life because her husband's murderer was still loose.

"She never said she didn't like him or he was abusive," Madore said.

Bodden pleaded not guilty to a charge of open murder with a deadly weapon in October following her indictment by the Douglas County grand jury.

Authorities believe Bodden killed her husband Aug. 15-16, 2006, and had three weeks to hide the crime before his sister reported him missing.

According to investigators' reports, Karen Bodden said the couple was having marital problems and he flew off from his hangar in a Cessna 421 with a man named Ramos.

On Thursday, prosecutor Mark Jackson questioned Richard Ramos of La Habra, Calif., whom Jackson said was the only "Ramos" listed with the Federal Aviation Administration who owned a Cessna 421.

Ramos, confined to a wheelchair, identified pictures of his plane that he said has been grounded in Chino, Calif., since he purchased it in 1999. The plane is missing the right propeller.

"The airplane has never been out of a 20-mile radius of Chino. I bought it in December 1999, and it's never been operable, and I never loaned it out," Ramos testified.

Under questioning by Jackson, Ramos said he was not involved in drug dealing and had nothing to do with Rob Bodden's murder.

"I don't even know the name," he said after looking at Bodden's picture.

The trial began Jan. 7 before District Judge Dave Gamble, and is expected to last three weeks.