Details Emerge in Tennis Referee Murder Arrest

Professional tennis referee Lois Ann Goodman, 70, of Woodland Hills was arrested Tuesday morning on suspicion of bludgeoning her 80-year-old husband to death with a coffee mug at thier Woodland Hills residence in April, according to authorities.

LAPD homicide detectives, with the assistance of the New York City Police Department, arrested Goodman while she was having breakfast at a New York hotel and getting ready to work at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, according to a Los Angeles Times article.

Goodman originally told Los Angeles Police detectives that her husband, Alan Frederick Goodman's death was the result of a fall down some stairs at their Oxnard Street townhouse, another Times article reported.

Los Angeles police Lt. David Storaker said "Her story was that she came home, she found her husband dead in their bed. There was a lot of blood at the location. She surmised that he must have had a heart attack and fallen down the stairs," NBC Los Angeles reported.

However, according to the LAPD, detectives ruled Goodman's death as suspicious from the start because they couldn't determine if foul play was involved.

After a full homicide investigation in which detectives worked closely with the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, officials determined on Aug. 2 that Goodman was murdered at his home and Lois Goodman was the prime suspect, according to the LAPD.

"It was a homicide. He had miltiple sharp-force injuries," Ed Warner, assistant chief of investigations for the coroner, told the Times.

According to Jane Robison, press secretary for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, Goodman allegedly bludgeoned her husband to death with a coffee mug.

"There are pieces of the mug that were on his scalp," NBC reports Storaker as saying.

On Aug. 14, detectives presented the case to the LA County District Attorney's Office and filed a murder arrest warrant for Goodman, who was, at the time, officiating U.S. Open tennis matches in New York City.

Storaker told the Los Angeles Times that detectives believe they have a motive for the killing, but they declined to release those details. The LAPD is asking the public to come forward with information about the couple in the months leading to the killing.

According to a report by the New York Daily News, the Goodmans were married almost 50 years and raised three daughters together. The Daily News article also said the couple ran an auto parts business before Alan Goodman's death.

Goodman was lodged at a Manhattan jail until her court appearance wherein she waived her right to an extradition hearing saying she wanted to return to Los Angeles as soon as possible to fight the charges, according to the report by NBC Los Angeles.

Prosecutors will ask that her bail be set at $1 million and, if convicted, Goodman faces up to life in state prison, Robison said. Goodman is due back in court Sept. 4.