A Portland man in the grip of blue-hued fentanyl pills and methamphetamine beat a stranger to death and then nearly killed another woman with a knife over the course of two bloody days last year, court records show.
Isaac Woodward was sentenced to 22 years Monday for killing Traves Barisich with stomps to the head outside a Southeast Portland corner store around 4:30 a.m. last Sept. 28.
A clerk saw Woodward drag the body toward a dumpster, then give up and flee toward Southeast Division Street, according to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.
Both Woodward, 45 and Barisich, 46, were homeless, court records show. The two didn’t appear to know each other before the attack.
Hours earlier, Woodward had stolen a phone from passerby Dylan Harrison outside a nearby grocery store, according to an indictment.
He was still wearing the same clothes the next day when he entered the laundry room of the Dolph Court Apartments in Southwest Portland and repeatedly stabbed Cassandra Kephart in the head.
“Get down on one knee, put one hand over your heart,” Woodward told the woman, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Kephart, who camped in the area, recognized Woodward from prior interactions and was able to identify him to responding officers, who tracked Woodward down on Barbur Boulevard and arrested him.
Woodward told investigators he was regularly using fentanyl and meth, according to court records.
Circuit Judge Christopher Marshall handed down the 22-year punishment after Woodward pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and second-degree attempted murder as part of a deal with prosecutors.
Barisich’s family attended the hearing, saying nothing could replace the loss of a beloved brother and nephew.
“Traves Barisich’s life was marked by a battle with bipolar disorder and inevitable substance abuse, neither of which could ultimately overshadow the mark he left on friends, family and his loved ones,” they wrote in an obituary published earlier by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
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