PORTLAND, Ore. — A Multnomah County Circuit Court judge sentenced a man to 22 years in prison Monday for beating a man to death and stabbing a woman in Portland, all within a 24-hour period in September 2023.
On July 17, Isaac Woodward, 45, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, for the death of 46-year-old Traves Barisich, and second-degree attempted murder, for the stabbing of a woman the next day. He pleaded no contest to attempted assault for a separate attack the same day of Barisich's death.
Just before 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 28, 2023, a clerk at a Plaid Pantry on Southeast Division reported observing a man, later determined to be Woodward, "dragging something resembling a body across the street" and attempting to "dispose of it" in a dumpster before leaving the body on the ground nearby.
When officers responded, they found Barisich dead. Woodward was gone by the time they arrived. The county medical examiner later confirmed that Barisich's death was a homicide, the result of blunt force trauma.
Officers learned that another person had been assaulted earlier that day at the New Seasons Market just down the street from where Barisich's body was found. Investigators later linked this attack to Woodward.
Early the next day, officers responded to reports of a stabbing at the Dolph Court Apartments in the Multnomah neighborhood. According to police, a woman was in the laundry room of the building when a man, later discovered to be Woodward, stabbed her multiple times in the neck and head until the attack was interrupted when another person walked into the room.
The woman escaped and flagged down a passing driver, who called 911. The caller saw the man exit the laundry room and said they "knew him to be Isaac Woodward," the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office said.
According to court documents, the woman, who was homeless, went to use the laundry room. About a minute later, she noticed a man had entered. The woman said she had turned her back away from the man and when she turned back around he had a knife walking toward her. She said the man swiped at her neck with the knife and then said to "get down on one knee, put one hand over your heart." He then stabbed her in the head multiple times. The woman said she "thought she was going to die," according to court documents.
Authorities found Woodward around a half mile away in the Southwest Barbur Boulevard area and took him into custody, seizing two knives as evidence. Woodward had fresh scratch marks on the inside of his wrists. He later admitted to attacking the woman inside the laundry room.
According to court documents, Woodward told officers that he had injected methamphetamines four times in the 12 hours prior to his arrest. A urine test showed methamphetamines.
