Stabber faces longer sentence

A Pend Oreille County jury Friday authorized above-standard punishment for an armed assailant who paralyzed a man by severing his spinal cord with a knife.

The jury took about four hours and 40 minutes Thursday and Friday to convict 40-year-old Troy Dean Stubbs of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon – a 9-inch long folding knife with a 4-inch blade.

Stubbs stabbed 22-year-old Ryan E. Goodwin in the back of the neck last October in a motor home near Cusick, Wash.

A Spokane doctor testified that Goodwin permanently lost the use of his legs and retained only 30 percent use of one arm and 70 percent use of the other. Goodwin also suffers from occasional debilitating loss of blood pressure as a result of his injuries.

Including a two-year sentence “enhancement” for use of a deadly weapon, Stubbs faces a standard range of 13 1/2 to 20 years in prison when Superior Court Judge Rebecca Baker sentences him Sept. 7. However, the jury ruled the crime was particularly egregious, opening the door to a sentence as long as life in prison.

Deputy Prosecutor Tony Koures said he plans to seek a 30-year term.

Testimony indicated Stubbs had told a witness he wanted to kill Goodwin because of an insulting remark Goodwin made about Stubbs’ wife. The stabbing occurred about 3:30 a.m. Oct. 4 at a birthday gathering that witnesses said involved poaching and copious use of methamphetamine.

“All these people were meth users,” Koures said. “Meth is written all over this case.”

Goodwin said he hadn’t used any of the drug the night he was stabbed, but he had some in his body when he was taken to a hospital, the knife still in his neck.

Stubbs testified that a 17-year-old boy, Lance Newman, stabbed Goodwin while Goodwin was showing Newman how to blow a glass meth pipe.

Stubbs told jurors he saw Newman hit Goodwin, and saw something sticking out of Goodwin’s neck without realizing he had been stabbed.

However, Goodwin and Newman testified that Stubbs stabbed Goodwin after distracting him and Newman with a claim to have seen a giant spider. Also, two other people – a longtime friend of Stubbs’ and his jail cellmate – testified that Stubbs admitted stabbing Goodwin.

Other testimony indicated Stubbs persuaded Newman to go with him to a nearby house where other members of their group had gathered, leaving Goodwin alone in the motor home. Goodwin used a cell phone to call his girlfriend for help.