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2/9/10
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courts Man denies killing father
Suspect also pleads insanity in slaying, assault
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BANGOR, Maine — A Newport woman quietly wept Monday in the first floor courtroom of the Penobscot Judicial Center as her son denied killing his father and pistol-whipping her last fall in the couple’s home.
Perley G. Goodrich Jr., 45, of Newport pleaded not guilty and not criminally responsible by reason of insanity to intentional or knowing murder, depraved indifference murder, and aggravated assault.
He did not appear to make eye contact with his mother, Sandra Goodrich, 64. His sister, Nancy Watson of Stetson, left the courtroom in sobs before the short hearing was concluded.
The women declined to talk to reporters after the arraignment.
Goodrich Jr. is accused of shooting his father, Perley G. Goodrich Sr., 76, after beating his mother with a gun at about 11:40 p.m. Oct. 26 at the Rutland Road home they shared in Newport. Goodrich Jr. was arrested after a four-day manhunt that culminated after a waitress recognized him drinking coffee at a Newport truck stop.
Superior Court Justice William Anderson ordered that Goodrich undergo a psychological evaluation to determine his state of mind when the alleged crime occurred. Also on Monday, he agreed with defense attorney Jeffrey Silverstein of Bangor and Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson, who is prosecuting the case, that Goodrich be held without bail for the time being.
Benson declined to discuss the case with reporters. It is the practice of the Maine Attorney General’s Office not to discuss pending cases.
If Goodrich Jr. were found not criminally responsible for the crime, he would be held at Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta until he was deemed fit to live in society without being a danger to himself or others, Silverstein said after the hearing. If found guilty, he would face between 25 years and life in prison.
“He had an acute and active medical condition that he sought help for, that his mother pleaded for him to receive,” the attorney said. “In my opinion, he was having a psychotic episode when these events took place.”
Silverstein said that as far as he knew, his client and his mother had not seen each other since Goodrich Jr.’s arrest.
Sandra Goodrich told the Bangor Daily News the day after her son’s arrest that she had taken him to a hospital the day of — but before — the attacks on her and her husband so he could be treated for his mental health problems. She described her son as “bipolar.”
She said she took Goodrich Jr. to Sebasticook Valley Hospital in Pittsfield. From there, he was transferred to another health care facility, but federal privacy laws prevented personnel from identifying it. Goodrich Jr. returned home a few hours before he allegedly killed his father and beat his mother.
According to a court affidavit, the son entered his mother's bedroom, where she was asleep, and asked to use her cell phone. Goodrich Jr. left the room with the phone, but when his mother followed him to the living room, he allegedly grabbed her, struck her with his fists and attempted to bind her hands together with duct tape. He then pulled a handgun and struck her on the head five to six times, leaving her dazed and beaten, the woman told police.
Goodrich Jr. then went to the bedroom where his father was sleeping, according to the affidavit. His mother told police she heard a gunshot from the bedroom and her husband exclaim, “He shot me.” Sandra Goodrich fled the home and ran to a neighbor's house, where police were called.
Officers later found Goodrich Sr. dead with a gunshot wound in the back. Goodrich Jr. had fled the home, according to the affidavit.
The arraignment of a second man charged with a double slaying in November in Burlington was continued Monday because Silverstein said he had not received discovery material from Benson’s office.
A new date has not been set for the arraignment of Nathaneal Nightingale, 31, of Burlington. He was indicted in late December for intentional or knowing murder in the shooting deaths of Michael L. Miller and Valerie J. Miller, both 47.
In interviews with police, Nightingale said he shot the couple, with whom he was friends, after a botched robbery attempt. Initially, Nightingale gave investigators a composite sketch of a suspect who turned out to be nonexistent.
The Millers both died from small-caliber gunshot wounds to the head, according to the state medical examiner’s office. The couple was found dead on Nov. 28. Nightingale was arrested about two weeks later.
He is being held without bail along with Goodrich at the Penobscot County Jail in Bangor.
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Recent comments
A common sense law from Augusta???
Any chance it will start an epidemic?
"Bunker shot him with a 22? What a sally!!! "
A lot of people use .22s to shoot rats.
I never said that he was not responsible for his actions Gorilla. What I did say is this....you all care MORE about the …
Here's a thought - the voters have spoken on this issue - GET THIS THING MOVING. Last time I checked, the voters did …
Hmmm...
Wrong again Ralphy!!
surprise surprise...
Seeing as he was released from a mental health facility against the wishes of his family I'm guessing this is one of those cases where claiming insanity is probably justified.
cranial capacity is probably lacking in this individual.
Some people are wired for violence. It's time this country rethinks its laws regarding psychiatric committment. The old system had its abuses, but emptying the asylums was not the answer. Surely this man is proof of that.
The mother losses her husband and now the son might just got off with the crime. And also beating his own mother. I feel bad for the mother.
Clearly this person should hot have been in a situation where he could commit a violent act.
66readerwriter, I don't even know where to begin in responding to "emptying the asylums was not the answer." First, it is not true that people with mental illness are more likely to commit violent acts than people without a mental illness. Second, a large number of patients in mental hospitals back in the 1950s and 1960s were not ill at all but dropped off by relatives of aging parents and grandparents who no longer felt they could care for their elders. State hospitals were warehouses for all kinds of people, from those with mental illnesses, to people without a homes, to people who today would be living in nursing homes.
Tragedy for the family, Afather and a husband lost, a borther and a son lost. This man was released from a mental facility against the wishes of his family. Im willing to believe in this case that this man does have a diminished mental capacity.
While the mother is certainly unhappy about the loss of her husband I suspect she blames those responsible for releasing her son from that hospital most. She loves her son and knows he is ill and I doubt she wants him to spend the rest of his life in prison because that would be yet another loss for her. Prosecute whoever made the call to release him because they are as much to blame in this.
Doesn't it seem that the hospital that released him just before he went on his rampage bears some degree of responsibility here?
yeap...you never know unless you were there.
No law against being psychotic. If he was interviewed and there was no mention of violence against others or himself, then he didn't meet criteria for hospitalization. However, if the interviewer was ill-trained or just plain inept, then there is some culpability. But no one has a crystal ball when it comes to the intent of an individual who is actively psychotic. Rarely is the psychotic individual violence prone, and it is difficult to assume the person is if there is no documented history of violence. or the interviewer is unaware of the person's history.
Get ready for more horrific stories of senseless violence though as more and more people will be going untreated due to projected budget cuts. Desperation and lack of community health care will cause incidents like this to increase dramatically in the next few years.
What I don't understand is why this man said he didn't do it..he must have known...why else would he be in the woods for so many days. I don't understand why they sent this man back out on the streets. His family knew he was indanger of hurting himself or someone he loved. This could have been prevented. I wonder if the people at that hospital feel any guilt. To quick to send them away because they don't want to bother.
If anyone here doesn't think this man iscrazy is themselves quite off thier rocker!
I do hope if this man has a true mental health diagnosis, and was receiving help for it, he continues to get the needed help...he probably was having a psychotic event when this happened. I feel sorry for the family that has to live in the wake of this traumatic event, and locking up him would do no good for anyone involved, he needs help and it's up to those that can determine that to make sure he gets the necessary help...My prayers to all involved...it must be very hard to live this "story" life on a daily basis.
Carette: You should really cut these health professionals some slack. A man was presented to them by his mother. He had, at that time, commited no crime. An adult who has commited no crime cannot be held against his will. It's really rather simple. Suppose your mother dropped you at a hospital and you were held against your will? You'd be suing everyone in sight. No one knows what future event will happen.
Beat on the brat .Beat on the brat.Beat on the brat with a baseball bat.
This article is misleading. The title says he denies killing his father, and it re-states the same in the opening paragraph. Then it states that he pleaded Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity, which doesn't mean he is denying doing the deed. It just means he is saying he isn't responsible for it due to his state of mind. Not trying to split hairs, but just seems like the article is misleading to me. Either way, I think the guy should get tossed in an 8 x 6 cell and fed bread and water until the day he dies, insane or not.
They didn't keep him because they didn't have a bed for him so they let him go!!! Acadia?? should build a bigger facility so that more could get help!!! instead of the mother just dropping him off, she should have gone in with him and stayed so that they could get the whole story on her son. The son could have said anything just have them let him go.
My ? is , If in a state of mental capacity that let him kill and beat his loved ones,"Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity, intentional or knowing murder" why did he run, hide, take guns, bust into a camp, flee the authorities, stay hidden for days? If I didnt think I did anything wrong, why would I do that?..The mental part that does make sense and would have all fit ..was if after the murder he just went to the Irving to have his cup of coffee, instead of several days later when he was cold and alone.
I have a brother who suffers from violent outbursts. He has attacked everyone in the family at one time or another. We have tried to get him help. We had him arrested at one time, but he was released the next day with no charges and free to return home, where he would be on his best behavior till the next time. As his condition has worsened we have taken the step of arming ourselves with stun-guns just in case. I have talked to the local sheriff (we live in TX now) and have been told that there is nothing he can do, not even to force brother to submit to treatment, unless he commits a crime, which we thought he did. Apparently familial battery is not a crime here. I took him to a mental health clinic a few years back and they did not test him, they did not interview the family, they talked to him about 30 minutes and said that he was OK. A diagnoses they might want to rethink since brother was diagnosed with Schizophrenia at the age of 12.
Now, all of that being said. My heart goes out to this family. I understand what they must have gone through before the terrible night that all of the good intentions and trying to protect their son fell apart. And make no mistake, it will always fall apart. Mental illness does not go away. I believe that the facility that released the young man should bear some responsibility for the outcome. The laws need to be tweaked. They were changed to protect the patients, but gave no consideration to their potential victims. There must be room to err on the side of safety.
Look at the bright side. We can start getting our moneys worth out of our brand new 40 million dollar judicial building on Exchange Street. And we only have to spend $200,000 on this case for the trial and hearings. Awesome. And the best part is we can place the blame on the institution(s) and doctors that didn't hold him. It's important that we protect the privacy of all individuals, even dangerous ones, through the HIPAA laws. It is unfortunate that this guy's right to privacy trumped his father's right to live, and his mother's right to not be beaten.
8:58 AM, OutofMainYes, Acadia only takes people with insurance. One of the 2 state hospitals would be treating him.
I'd be interested to know where he got the gun... Parents with a mentally ill child should know better than to keep firearms in the house.
AS I SEE IT, by Mainer Mike Brown
Who can blame the poor mother for declining to talk to reporters that pretend to care about her and her situation.
Give the woman a break!
The system is wrong it always has been. Murder is murder is murder. We need the death penalty back, we need harsher laws. There is no place for a cold blooded murderer in society or in prison. Especially ones that would kill his own elderly parents. This is crap. I am all for sensitivity and compassion, but enough is enough. We have to grow some and do the right thing here.
if one of these people (i.e. that guy down town who randomly slashed a girl in the cofee house) touched my family. Im sure I would recieve a harsher penalty for what i would do than this guy gets.
euthanize him like you would a wild dog......
GixxerRider et al: Putting this sick man to death will not bring his father back. It will not get his mother un-beaten. It will accomplish nothing. Get him off the street: yes....exterminate him? No. A state that kills its own can come for anyone they like for any reason they so desire at any time they want. A state that practices murder as a national policy will reap what it sows. We, in fact, have beat up on many people, the latest being Iraq. It has helped bring our economy down and has not helped make a peaceful world in the least. We are a violent nation. Trickledown is at work: citizens can now be violent with impunity, whether we put all of them to death or not. Violence begets violence. We cannot go to war to practice peace. War is the opposite of peace. When it's okay for the state to kill, why, it's ok for its citizens to kill too. We should be modeling peace. Instead we model violence.
Huh.....No surprise there.....Once again, there is our wonderful state of Maine......