Witness testifies statements to police inaccuartely put in writing
Fourteen years after Montgomery Goodwin was convicted of murder, a prosecution witness testified that statements he made to the state police were twisted around and inaccurately put into writing. Joseph G. Beal of North Union Township testified Wednesday that when he and his wife, Beverly, realized they might have seen something that related to Eugene “Jiggs” Williams’ June 1987 death, they had to call police. So, knowing then-trooper and now Fayette County Sheriff Gary D. Brownfield Sr., the Beals called him at home.
Brownfield testified at Goodwin’s post conviction hearing that during that conversation, and another a day or two after, the Beals told him that two speeding cars passed them in the early morning hours of June 18, 1987. Beverly Beal, Brownfield testified, identified the driver of the second vehicle, as resembling Goodwin.
Goodwin and his wife Mary Ann, testified Joseph Beal, were friends of theirs.
Represented by attorney John S. Cupp Jr., Goodwin is before Judge Steve P. Leskinen hoping to win a new trial, claiming his trial attorneys, Thomas Ceraso and former Judge Fred Adams, were ineffective. Although testimony wrapped up on Wednesday, Leskinen will not rule on the request until both Cupp and Deputy Attorney General Paul Von Geis have a chance to file briefs on their respective sides of the case.
Williams was Mary Ann Goodwin’s lover, according to testimony at Goodwin’s trial. At the time of Williams’ death, the Goodwins were estranged.
Goodwin was convicted of chasing Williams along Route 119 into Connellsville, where he shot Williams multiple times.
While Joseph Beal testified Tuesday that he and his wife did see two speeding cars come past them near the Laurel Mall on Route 119 that night, he also said that the first car – the one in which Williams rode – contained two people.
Brownfield testified that neither Beverly nor Joseph Beal mentioned a passenger in the first car until they testified at Goodwin’s criminal trial in 1988.
Brownfield also testified that Beverly Beal, who did not testify at Wednesday’s proceedings, reviewed the statement given to police in September 1988, and verified its accuracy. Both were also given the opportunity to read Brownfield’s notes after the June 23, 1987, interview as well, and confirmed they were accurate.
Joseph Beal testified that after that initial statement, he and his wife met with Brownfield and Von Geis. During that meeting, Beal testified that they informed the trooper and prosecutor that their statements were inaccurate – particularly the portion about the first car containing only Williams.
That revelation, testified Beal, was met with hostility.
“Mr. Von Geis got (angry). He threw a chair across the floor and said, ‘Who the hell do you think it was? Judge Cicchetti?,'” testified Beal.
As a result of their feelings, the Beals wrote a letter to the judge who heard Goodwin’s trial, informing him that they felt that what they told Brownfield was changed to benefit prosecutors.
Beal told police in his statement that he and his wife could not sleep on June 18, 1987, and decided to take a drive when they passed a car on Route 119.
Although the Beals initially told Brownfield there was only one man in each car, Joseph Beal testified Wednesday that they remembered a few days after talking to the trooper that there were two men in the first car.
When they told Brownfield, Beal testified he responded by saying, “You don’t want to say that.”
Goodwin, 63, of Connellsville filed this latest post-conviction petition after the state Superior Court filed an allowance for him to do so.
Although Cupp had initially asked that Leskinen consider setting aside Goodwin’s 10- to 20-year sentence or releasing him from prison early because of medical problems, the jurist ruled that other judges had already decided those matters.
Leskinen will only be ruling on if Ceraso and Adams were not effective in their representation of Goodwin for various things they did or did not do at trial, including more thoroughly questioning the Beals about their accounts of that night.