Lemon Grove

A 31-year-old woman who shot her husband and left him a quadriplegic was sentenced Tuesday to one year in jail and five years’ probation.

Joanne Goodbody, 31, was given the term by San Diego Municipal Judge H. Ronald Domnitz even though her husband, Patrick Goodbody, 31, wanted her to go free.

“The results of this crime are horrendous; I can’t let this crime go unpunished,” Domnitz said.

Among the terms of her probation are that she not drink alcohol and not own or possess firearms.

The probation report stated that Patrick Goodbody, now being cared for in a convalescent center, wanted his wife to take care of him and wanted no more time in custody for her. He watched the sentencing from his wheelchair in court.

Domnitz, in giving her credit for 36 days spent in jail, allowed Joanne Goodbody to remain free until Jan. 6 so she and her two children can celebrate Christmas together.

She pleaded guilty July 9 to assault with a deadly weapon. An attempted murder charge stemming from the July 6 shooting in their apartment on Pacific Avenue was dismissed.

Patrick Goodbody, an embalmer at Goodbody’s Mortuary in El Cajon, which is owned by his father, was shot in the neck and the bullet hit his spinal cord.

According to an interview with deputies, Joanne Goodbody told them the shooting came after a fight that lasted all night.

“We were both playing with the gun and it went off. I didn’t know it was loaded,” Joanne Goodbody was quoted as saying.

Patrick Goodbody said both had been drinking at the time.

Defense attorney Deborah Carson told the judge that Joanne Goodbody will have to care for her husband the rest of her life, thus giving her “a life sentence.”

That prompted the judge to remark that “Mr. Goodbody has a life sentence, too.”