Neighbor Held in Stabbing Death of Woman

As she lay dying in her driveway May 31, an Altadena woman told stunned neighbors that “Ernie did it,” prompting authorities to arrest a 19-year-old neighbor in the fatal stabbing.

Ernesto Keyes is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on one count of murder in Pasadena Municipal Court in the death of Carmen Kimberly McGruder--a 35-year-old single mother who worked as a letter carrier in the Pasadena area.

“Why her?” wondered Antonio De la Rosa, a neighbor who held McGruder in his arms as she was dying. “Everybody was in shock.”

Family members and neighbors speculated that McGruder’s killer might have been trying to find drugs he had thrown into McGruder’s yard.

A roadway at the rear of the property, dubbed “Drug Alley” by residents who live in the semirural area in west Altadena, is a hot spot for drug dealing, Sheriff’s Department officials say. They said that dealers sometimes toss their drugs into yards when officials approach.

Based on witnesses’ statements upon which he declined to elaborate, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Joe Brown alleged that the killer knocked on the front door of McGruder’s home in the 3100 block of Ridgeview Drive at about 9:20 p.m. Sunday, asking permission to enter her back yard to retrieve something. McGruder refused to grant him access, the detective said.

A short time later, Brown said, McGruder heard a noise outside and, when she investigated, she was attacked.

Neighbors said they heard McGruder scream. When De La Rosa and others arrived, she said “Ernie did it, Ernie did it.” Based on those words, and accounts from other witnesses in the neighborhood, detectives arrested Keyes less than an hour after the stabbing, Brown said.

Although detectives found no evidence of drugs in the yard, Brown said they have not ruled out the possibility that the killer was seeking to retrieve drugs he had discarded there.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Don Musich said Keyes was well-known in the area as a troublemaker, but he declined to elaborate.

There was no evidence of a rift between McGruder and the suspect, authorities said. Brown said the two appear to have been only passing acquaintances.

D. J. Long, a next-door neighbor, said McGruder was a quiet woman who did not complain to authorities about the ongoing problems in the alley behind her house. However, Long said McGruder sometimes told him that she thought she heard people in her back yard at night.

Family and neighbors described McGruder as a hard-working single mother who was devoted to her 12-year-old son, Keenan, and very close to her parents, brother and five sisters.

McGruder’s brother, George, said his sister had complained that drug dealers sometimes ran through her back yard when police were chasing them.

“She told my wife that she had wanted to move because she was tired of the problems,” he said.

McGruder was an active volunteer with the Pasadena Ponies, a youth football league founded by her brother about five years ago to serve underprivileged children.

“She was very nice,” said Gary Strong, who is involved with the league. “It’s just a tragedy that this happened.”