LOS ANGELES -- A 70-year-old tennis umpire who was in New York City to referee U.S. Open tennis matches remained in custody in Manhattan Wednesday as she awaited extradition to California to face charges that she bludgeoned her 80-year-old husband to death with a coffee mug at their home in Woodland Hills earlier this year.
Los Angeles Police Department homicide detectives assisted by New York Police Department officers served Lois Goodman with an arrest warrant at the Sheraton hotel in midtown Manhattan Tuesday morning, authorities said.
Goodman is accused of killing Alan Frederick Goodman, who was found dead April 17 at his home in the 2000 block of Oxnard Street in Woodland Hills, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Los Angeles County prosecutors said the man was bludgeoned to death with a coffee mug in an attack that left ceramic chips in his head.
The suspect told police her husband must have fallen, but coroner's investigators found his injuries inconsistent with a fall, authorities said. No theory on a motive was immediately advanced.
Prosecutors filed the felony arrest warrant charging Goodman with murder on Aug. 14, according to the District Attorney's Office.
During a court appearance following her arrest, Goodman agreed Tuesday to waive extradition proceedings.
"She wants as quickly as possible to go back to California to fight this case," her public defender, Allen Farbman, told the New York Daily News.
Neighbors at the gated townhome complex where the Goodmans resided were surprised, if not exactly shocked, to learn of the arrest, the Los Angeles Daily News reported
"She was arrested for murder? Gosh," neighbor Michael Rudchenko told the newspaper. "They suspected her, I know the police interrogated her a couple of times."
He said he went to pay his condolences to Lois Goodman on the day of Alan Goodman's death, adding: "She thanked me for coming, didn't seem at all upset."
Adaline Handler, another neighbor, told the Los Angeles Times she witnessed a police raid on the Goodman home about a month ago.
"They did a search warrant and put her out on the porch," Handler told the Times. She described the victim as a "nice little man" who suffered from diabetes.
Neighbors said Lois Goodman had her carpets cleaned after her husband's bloody death.
The Goodmans were reportedly married nearly 50 years, raised three daughters and ran an auto parts business.
According to the LAPD, officers were called to the Woodland Hills residence after Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics pronounced Alan Goodman dead.
"Officers conducting the preliminary death investigation ruled Goodman's circumstances as suspicious, because they couldn't determine if foul play was involved," according to an LAPD statement.
No comments:
Post a Comment