SON PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO MURDER OF FATHER,,77, IN LAKESIDE

By Miriam Raftery

February 5, 2011 (Lakeside) – Robert Goodwin, 77, died of multiple blunt force injuries on January 29th and his death has been determined to be a homicide by the San Diego Medical Examiner. His son, Charles Goodwin, 28, pled not guilty to a murder charge and is being held on $2.5 million bail.

Charles Goodwin reported that his father had died in their home at 12645 Laurel Street, Apt. 1, in Lakeside. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.
 

“The condition of the body was such that paramedics expressed their concerns to deputies,” said Lt. Dennis J. Brugos with the Sheriff’s Homicide Detail.
 

Deputy District Attorney Claudia Grasso told Judge Charles Ervin that the victim died of blunt force trauma and had severely broken ribs and severe bruising on his face, 10 News reported. According to the prosecutor, the defendant had blood on his shirt, hands and inner thigh when emergency personnel arrived.
 

Brugos indicated that injuries prompted investigators from the Crime Lab, Santee Sheriff’s Command, California Department of Justice, U.S. Border Patrol and the Homicide Detail to respond.
 

“We have no sense of what the motive was,” Brugos said, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. “The neighbors said they were nice people. The building owner said these were the last people she’d believe this of,” He added, “There is nothing to suggest the younger Goodwin was a drug abuser. We have not found anything to suggest strained relations (between father and son).”
 

The two men had resided in the Lakeside apartment for 14 years. Charles Goodwin, a County Parks employee, was working at Lindo Lakes Park in Lakeside at the time of his arrest.

The Medical Examiner ruled that coroner artery disease was also a factor in the death.

Anyone with information about this incident should contact the Homicide Detail at (858) 974-2321, after hours at (858)-565-5200 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-TIPS(8477).