Trial ordered for Santa Rosa man accused of beating mother with skillets

A 74-year-old woman took the stand in a Santa Rosa courtroom Monday and described the beating she suffered from her 57-year-old son, who is accused of attacking her with cast iron skillets after she confronted him about letting her dog eat walnuts.

Robert Churich, 57, allegedly followed his mother into a garage, pushed her to the ground and beat her over the head with one skillet until the handle broke and he grabbed a second, according to court testimony from the woman and two Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies.

“I didn’t know if I was going to die,” said the Santa Rosa woman, who was only identified as Jane Doe. “I thought if I lay there a minute, he will go away.”

Churich eventually fled in his mother’s Cadillac sedan, letting her dog loose in a Walmart parking lot and running up a bar tab for a group of strangers at a Hard Rock Cafe in San Francisco before he was arrested the next day, a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy said.

Judge Knoel Owen decided there was enough evidence to try Churich on attempted murder and other felony crimes after listening to four hours of testimony Monday. The next hearing is Feb. 8.

The beating occurred just before 2:30 p.m. Oct. 5 in the garage of the woman’s home on Darbster Place in Larkfield. The woman suffered bruises all over her face and arms and a laceration to her head that required two staples. She told the judge she has experienced vertigo, dizziness and headaches since the beating.

Churich has been held on ?$1.5 million bail at the Sonoma County Jail since Oct. 6, the day after the beating, when Healdsburg police spotted the Cadillac near the railroad tracks.

Churich’s attorney, public defender Sarah Grenfell, tried through questioning to defend her client’s actions by suggesting he had suffered years of abuse, including beatings, from his mother.

The woman said her son had a “violent temper” and then under cross-examination admitted to having a temper that could be violent, too.

“Not like him but, sure, if I get mad enough,” she said.

The judge told Grenfell that the defense would have to bring proof of abuse in order to introduce that defense in court.

The October beating followed an argument about the woman’s beloved dog. The woman accused her son of leaving food like nuts and M&Ms out for her dog to eat, knowing it could get the animal sick. She told the judge she suspected he was leaving the food out on purpose to “make a problem for me.”

According to her testimony, she confronted her son upstairs in his room, where he had been watching television, after catching the dog eating a walnut.

“Your blood started to boil?” Grenfell said.

“That’s right,” Jane Doe said.

The woman said she asked her son to have his girlfriend pick him up and told him she would rent him a room for six months if he couldn’t immediately find another place to live.

In response, she said her son threatened to throw her off the second-floor balcony.

As she walked downstairs and through the garage to the driveway, Churich followed her outside, pushed her back into the garage and onto the floor, according to the testimony. He grabbed a skillet and beat her over the head, eventually closing the garage and starting the car, which she thought might have been an attempt to asphyxiate her, according to her testimony.

“He said, ‘I hate you, I’ve always hated you, I’m going to kill you,’ ” she told the courtroom.

Editor’s Note: Jane Doe’s dog was found and is back in her care.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.