Anthony James Goodin
KINGMAN – The Alabama man who has admitted using a machete to fatally injure his wife during a quarrel in the parking lot of the Kingman Walmart store early July 12 appears to be an ex con who was previously tried for murder. The Georgia Department of Corrections confirms the Anthony James Goodin, 59, that it previously incarcerated has the very same date of birth as the man by the same name who is held for first degree murder in the Mohave County Adult Detention Center.
Local law enforcement officials have not yet established Goodin’s prior criminal history, but some illumination is provided by information from out of state.
Georgia authorities have confirmed that Goodin was tried and convicted of the throat-slash murder of a Valdosta school teacher in 1988 and sentenced to life in prison.
“On December 22, 1988, Judge Lilly granted an extraordinary motion for new trial based on new evidence,” said Bradfield Shealy, District Attorney for the Southern Judicial District in Valdosta. “Goodin was re-tried in December of 1989 and was acquitted of murder on December 7, 1989, which is the date you show he was released from prison.”
Georgia Department of Corrections records further reveal that Goodin was returned to prison in the Peach State for subsequent assault-related convictions in at least two cases. It appears he served a little more than three years in total before he was released in 2007.
The 2007 release date properly aligns with Goodin’s statement to Kingman police that he had been married to his wife Lynda Goodin, 53, for 16 years before she was slashed last week and pronounced dead following transport to Kingman Regional Medical Center.
Goodin told Kingman police that he and his wife were traveling to California from Alabama when they pulled their U-Haul into the parking lot of Walmart at 3396 Stockton Hill Road. He indicated they were financially challenged and that she was nagging at him for giving $20 to a total stranger.
Kingman police reports indicate that Goodin called 911 himself to report he stabbed his wife. He dropped the machete upon command of officers arriving at the crime scene but was TASED several times to be taken into custody after he failed to obey other police directives.
“He was stating that God and Jesus directed him to kill his wife,” one police report said. Another report indicates Goodin said the “wicked are to be destroyed” and “put to death.”
Deputy Mohave County Attorney James Schoppmann will prosecute the case. Assignment of defense counsel and judicial division are pending.
Dave Hawkins
Terry Richards of the Valdosta Daily Times contributed to this report
