DA: Caregiver plotted old man’s death

His body may have been weakening, but Gerald Rabourn’s mind was sharp in 2010, the last time he was seen alive.

The 88-year-old earned a pension from his long career as a mapmaker, owned his Rancho Bernardo house outright and was frugal with his money. He was the kind of man who would order a pizza and then pick it up himself to avoid tipping a delivery person, a prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.

Over time, Rabourn had amassed enough money to pay for the things he needed and to leave some behind for his daughter to inherit.

What he didn’t know, the prosecutor said, was that the caregiver hired to care for Rabourn’s dying wife was hatching a plan to steal his money. And he didn’t know the caregiver, Denise Michelle Goodwin, might one day be accused in his death.

Goodwin, 47, is now on trial facing murder for financial gain, forgery and various theft-related charges.

“The Rabourns did not suspect, and really had no way of knowing, the defendant’s true intentions when she came into the home,” Deputy District Attorney Bill Mitchell said during his opening statement in San Diego Superior Court.

Rabourn was never seen again after Oct. 21, 2010. His body has not been found.

After Rabourn’s wife died of lung cancer, the prosecutor said, the defendant was able to gain control over his assets, sell his home and funnel his money into her personal accounts.

“The success of the defendant’s plan had to involve the death of Gerald Rabourn,” Mitchell said. “He was so tight with his money, he would have stopped it.”

Defense attorney Ronald Bobo conceded Tuesday that Goodwin developed and carried out a scheme to take money from Rabourn, but she did not kill him.

“There was a clear plan,” the attorney said, explaining that his client was skilled in financial matters and knew how to deal with elderly people. “The plan was that they would both make money playing the stock market.”

Goodwin was arrested in July 2011, several months after Rabourn’s family had last heard from him. His daughter, who lives out of state, testified Tuesday that she had made plans to visit her father just weeks after his wife, Carolyn, died in September 2010.

Her father later persuaded her to cancel her flight because he would be away, staying with a person he referred to as Denise.

“He said, ‘Oh, I don’t want you to come,’” said Mary Weaver, Rabourn’s eldest daughter from his first marriage. “That was not like my dad at all.”

The prosecutor said Goodwin forged Rabourn’s name on numerous documents to get access to his money and sell his house. He said the defendant transferred $70,000 into a personal account, put more than $98,000 toward the purchase of a home and other rental properties, and made more than $22,000 in cash withdrawals.

Mitchell said the defendant repeatedly lied to Rabourn’s family members about his whereabouts, and even persuaded a woman to leave a message for his daughter, pretending to be his new wife.

The phone call, made from Rabourn’s cellphone, was purportedly from a woman named Carmen, who said she and Rabourn had gotten married in Las Vegas.

“I’m asking that you give (us) time to ourselves and not keep calling,” the woman said in the message. “Gerry will call you when he wants.”

The trial is expected to last at least six weeks. If convicted, Goodwin faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.