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发帖数: 1222 | 1 http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/08/us-open-tennis-re
A 70-year-old professional-tennis referee accused of killing her husband by
beating him with a coffee cup is expected to be arraigned Wednesday in a Van
Nuys court.
Lois Goodman flew into Los Angeles International Airport with officers last
Thursday after being arrested in New York City, where she was expected to
referee at the U.S. Open.
Authorities originally believed that her husband died of natural causes last
spring, court records revealed.
But on the eve of his cremation, according to the records, a perfunctory
check at the mortuary triggered a series of stunning revelations: The man
had been beaten to death, the murder weapon was a coffee cup, and the prime
suspect was his widow.
Police who were called to the couple's Woodland Hills home April 17 found a
blood trail leading to his body and severe wounds on his head. But officers
accepted a theory advanced by his wife that he had fallen down the stairs
before crawling into his bed.
"Some of the evidence matched her story," Lt. David Storacker said.
She told officers that she had been at Pierce College for six hours when she
returned home and "observed a broken coffee mug on the floor which was
covered in blood," according to an affidavit signed by a Los Angeles police
detective.
"She discovered her husband lying in bed. He was covered in blood and did
not appear to be breathing," Det. Jeffrey Briscoe wrote.
Two paramedics pronounced Alan Goodman dead and told police about an "oddly
shaped cut to the right side of the head," Briscoe wrote. "Firefighters
advised officers that scene appeared suspicious and left the body
undisturbed."
But after learning of the octogenarian's various medical maladies and
consulting with the coroner's office, police determined there was no crime
and allowed Lois Goodman to transfer his body to a mortuary without an
autopsy. It was at Heritage Crematory on April 20 that a coroner's
investigator, sent to sign the death certificate, noted the multiple cuts on
Alan Goodman's head and ears, according to the affidavit.
The "deep penetrating blunt force trauma ... was consistent with being
impacted with a sharp object," Briscoe wrote.
His observations launched a homicide investigation. An autopsy revealed
shards of the coffee cup in the wounds. A search warrant executed April 21
turned up blood throughout the home "inconsistent with accidental death,"
Briscoe wrote.
Stains on carpets, the refrigerator door, inside a linen closet and on the
wall leading to the garage suggested "a mobile victim" who, police theorized
, would have called for help. |
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