Catherine Woods Murder: Paul Cortez Trial, Conviction, and Appeals

The Catherine Woods murder was the November 27, 2005, stabbing death of a 21-year-old aspiring Broadway dancer in her Upper East Side apartment in Manhattan. Her ex-boyfriend, yoga instructor Paul Cortez, was convicted of second-degree murder in February 2007 and sentenced to 25 years to life. He has maintained his innocence and pursued appeals for nearly two decades. Every court to consider the case, most recently the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in November 2025, has left the conviction in place.

Who Catherine Woods Was

Catherine Woods grew up in Columbus, Ohio, the eldest of three children. Her father, Jon Woods, directed the Ohio State University marching band. From childhood she trained as a dancer, and in the summer of 2002, at age 17, her parents drove her to New York City to pursue a career on Broadway.¹

For three years she took dance, voice, and acting lessons while trying to support herself. In the months before her death she began working nights as an exotic dancer at a topless club called Privilege, using the stage name “Ava.” The schedule left her days free for auditions and classes. She kept the job secret from her parents.²

Two men were central to what followed. David Haughn was a childhood friend from Ohio who had followed her to New York. The two dated, were reportedly engaged earlier in 2005, and continued sharing an apartment on East 86th Street as roommates after the romance ended.³ Paul Cortez, a yoga instructor and aspiring actor, had been dating Catherine for about a year.⁴ At some point Cortez contacted Catherine’s father and told him she was stripping. Jon Woods flew to New York; Catherine convinced him it wasn’t true.⁵ Prosecutors would later argue Catherine ended the relationship because Cortez had exposed her secret, and that the rejection became his motive.⁶

The Night of November 27, 2005

It was Thanksgiving weekend. Haughn called 911 that evening to report that Catherine was unresponsive and there was “blood all over” their apartment. He told police he had left for roughly 20 minutes to retrieve his car so he could drive her to work, stopping at his own workplace to see co-workers. He said he found her body when he came back.⁴

Catherine had been stabbed repeatedly and her throat had been slashed.⁵ Crime scene investigators from the NYPD’s 19th Precinct documented at least 15 stab wounds and two deep neck lacerations, along with signs of a violent struggle.²

How the Investigation Turned to Paul Cortez

Detectives first focused on Haughn. He had discovered the body, and his shoe size matched bloody boot prints at the scene. He was interrogated for roughly 20 hours. Investigators described him as “surprisingly cooperative”: he voluntarily provided DNA and fingerprints and told them, “I don’t need a lawyer.” His account of his movements checked out.⁵

During that questioning, Haughn told detectives Catherine had been seeing Cortez. Brought in, Cortez said he had spent the day watching football with friends and shopping, that he had been trying to reach Catherine, and that she was being stalked by a club patron named “Joe.” Police looked into the stalking claim and found nothing to support it. Cortez was released without being fingerprinted.⁴

The case broke open when a crime scene unit went back to the apartment and moved a mattress leaning against a bedroom wall. Behind it was a bloody handprint that did not match Haughn. Investigators then obtained Cortez’s cell phone records. His calls on the day of the murder pinged off a tower about a block from Catherine’s apartment, and his phone activity stopped after roughly 6:00 p.m., the suspected time of the killing.⁴

Cortez was arrested on December 19, 2005. Police were able to collect his fingerprints because of a separate, unrelated sexual assault report that had been filed against him. The prints matched the handprint behind the mattress. Size 10½ Skechers he owned matched the boot prints at the scene. Haughn was never charged.⁴

The Trial and Conviction

Cortez was tried for second-degree murder in Manhattan. Prosecutors built their case on the forensics: the bloody handprint matched to Cortez, the matching shoe prints, and the cell records placing him near the apartment at the time of the killing. They also introduced six years of Cortez’s journal entries, which contained misogynistic thoughts and revenge fantasies about former girlfriends, arguing the writings showed a “progression” toward the murder.²

Cortez testified in his own defense. He said he had visited Catherine’s apartment many times and had likely touched the bedroom wall on an earlier occasion. His attorneys pointed to Haughn as an alternate suspect and noted his matching boot size. In one disputed argument, the defense suggested the blood on the wall containing Cortez’s thumbprint was menstrual blood from a prior intimate encounter, not blood from the murder. Prosecutors dismissed the theory, noting that Catherine had been violently slashed and that the blood on the wall was fresh.⁷

On February 15, 2007, the jury found Cortez guilty of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 25 years to life.⁴ Investigators later acknowledged that while the evidence overwhelmingly pointed to Cortez, a specific motive was never conclusively established.

Where the Case Stands Now

Cortez has never stopped fighting his conviction, and he has lost at every stage.

Direct Appeal

The Appellate Division affirmed the conviction in June 2011.⁸ In January 2014, the New York Court of Appeals identified two errors at trial but ruled both harmless. One involved the trial judge’s inadequate inquiry into a conflict of interest affecting one of Cortez’s attorneys, Dawn Florio, who was under indictment by the same Manhattan district attorney’s office prosecuting him.⁹ The other was the admission of Cortez’s old journal entries, which the court agreed functioned as improper propensity evidence. The judges called the remaining forensic and cell phone evidence “extraordinarily powerful” and held the errors did not change the outcome.¹⁰

Motion for a New Trial

Cortez then moved for a new trial under New York Criminal Procedure Law § 440.10. The centerpiece was surveillance video his supporters said showed Haughn leaving the apartment building several minutes after a neighbor heard Catherine scream, contradicting Haughn’s account. Attorney Jeffrey Lichtman also argued that the original defense team was “unprepared and inept” and had failed to hire independent forensic experts despite having court-allotted funds.¹¹ In August 2017, State Supreme Court Justice Patricia Nuñez denied the motion, ruling that the video’s time stamp, even if authentic, did not “rise to the level of justifying a change in the decision.”⁶

Federal Habeas Corpus

Cortez took the case into federal court, filing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He raised the surveillance video again and offered expert affidavits arguing his fingerprint had not been left in Catherine’s blood but had been deposited during an earlier visit. On August 8, 2024, District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer denied the petition, finding that Cortez had not met the “high bar” required to disturb the state courts’ rulings.¹²

Cortez appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The case, docketed as Cortez v. Kopp, No. 24-2376, resulted in a summary order issued on November 6, 2025.¹³ Cortez has also sought executive clemency from the governor of New York.

Catherine’s father, Jon Woods, told reporters he had “never gotten over it” and that “Catherine is on my mind most every day.” Facing tabloid coverage focused on her nightclub work, he defended her: “I can sit here and, in my heart know, I don’t believe this. She was a wonderful person.”¹ He died on September 12, 2015, at 76.¹⁴

1
CBS News. The Last Dance
2
CBS News. Death of a Dream
3
Gothamist. Personal Trainer Boyfriend Questioned in Dancer’s Death
4
Oxygen. Paul Cortez Kills Aspiring Dancer Catherine Woods in NYC
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NBC News. Catherine Woods Murder Investigation
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The New York Times. Hearing Denied for Paul Cortez in Catherine Woods Case
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Gothamist. Closing Arguments in Cortez Murder Trial
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Appellate Litigation. People v. Paul Cortez
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The New York Times. Visit to Jailed Client Ends in Lawyer’s Arrest
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New York Courts. People v Cortez, 22 NY3d 1061
11
CBS News. Catherine Woods’ Killer Paul Cortez Wants a New Trial
12
vLex. Cortez v. Griffin
13
CaseMine. Cortez v. Kopp, No. 24-2376
14
The Columbus Dispatch. Former Ohio State Marching Band Director Jon Woods Dies