Woman accused of stabbing grandmother indicted

By Ed Runyan

No motive has been reported for the attack.

WARREN — Crystal Goodrich, the Leavittsburg woman accused of stabbing her 81-year-old grandmother three times Monday afternoon, has been indicted on charges that could land her in prison for up to 28 years.

Goodrich, 29, of Emert Road, was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday afternoon in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on charges of felonious assault, attempted murder and kidnapping.

She will be arraigned at 1 p.m. today by Judge John M. Stuard in common pleas court.

Police said Goodrich went to her grandmother’s apartment on Ridge Road at 6:30 a.m. Monday and held the woman, Ruth V. Jenkins, at knife point until about noon, when Goodrich’s mother arrived.

At that point, Goodrich told her mother, Cathy Lane, she was going to kill Jenkins, police said. Lane stepped between the two women and kept Goodrich away from Jenkins until police arrived.

But when Lane went to unlock the door to allow a Newton Falls police officer inside, Goodrich stabbed Jenkins twice in the chest and once in the arm.

Jenkins is hospitalized but expected to survive. Goodrich is in Trumbull County Jail, being held on $1 million bond.

Newton Falls Police Chief John Kuivila declined to discuss what evidence police uncovered that would indicate a motive for the attack.

Meanwhile, a neighbor of Goodrich’s on Emert Road said she saw Goodrich just a couple of days ago and is shocked that Goodrich is accused of something like this.

“I wouldn’t have suspected her at all,” said the woman, who declined to give her name.

The woman said Goodrich was divorced about a year ago but had been living with a boyfriend in a house she and Goodrich’s ex-husband had purchased in 2007. The home is a renovated one-story house at the end of a dead-end road.

The house was empty for about six months in 2008 when the couple divorced, but Goodrich, her boyfriend and two children had been living there since sometime in 2008, the neighbor said.

Goodrich graduated from LaBrae High School and the Gordon D. James Career Center, the neighbor said.

Warren Township Police Chief Thomas Rush said there were very few police calls to Goodrich’s house, only very minor incidents, declining to elaborate.

Warren Municipal Court records indicate that Goodrich was convicted of DUI in March after being arrested on the charge by the Ohio State Highway Patrol at about 3 a.m. Dec. 28, 2008, on state Route 5 near Burnett Road, very close to her home.

Her license was suspended for six months, her six-month jail sentence was suspended, and she was ordered to report for a 72-hour program run by the Warren Alternative Sentencing Program in the former Warren City Jail.

runyan@vindy.com