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Walter Goudy

Other Indiana Exonerations
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In the early morning hours of October 2, 1993, Marvin McCloud was driving his gold Cadillac out of the parking lot of an after-hours club in Anderson, Indiana, when two gunmen approached on both sides of the vehicle and opened fire with pistols. McCloud, 21, was killed and a front seat passenger, Damon Nunn, was wounded. Jill Barclay, who was in the back seat, was unharmed.
 
Police focused their attention on 25-year-old Walter Goudy of Indianapolis after a witness reported seeing Goudy on the street and believed that Goudy resembled one of the gunmen. On February 5, 1994, Anderson police detective Rodney Cummings summoned Barclay and her cousin, Carlotta Barclay (who had witnessed the shooting from the street) to the police station to view a lineup. Cummings and his partner, Steve Napier, told them they had a suspect in custody and asked them to view the suspect—Goudy—who stood alone in a room behind a one-way mirror.
 
Jill Barclay identified Goudy as the gunman who was on the passenger side of the vehicle. Carlotta Barclay did not identify him.
 
The women then were asked to view a lineup that included Goudy and five other jail inmates. Jill Barclay again identified Goudy. Carlotta Barclay did not identify anyone. Before Jill Barclay left the station, she told the detectives that she personally knew all the men in the lineup except Goudy.
 
Goudy was then arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder.
 
On May 16, 1994, Madison County Prosecutor William Lawler, Jr., dismissed the charges against Goudy after Goudy’s attorney presented a list of 16 alibi witnesses, who said that Goudy was in Indianapolis at a party 40 miles away at the time of the crime.
 
Later that year, Cummings, the lead detective on the case, defeated Lawler in a race for county prosecutor and took office in January 1995. On April 7, Cummings charged Goudy again with murder and attempted murder and added charges of attempted carjacking and attempted robbery. Goudy was arrested for a second time on April 11, 1995 in St. Louis, Missouri and returned to Madison County.
 
In late fall of 1995, Goudy went on trial before a jury in Madison County Superior Court. Cummings had been forced to recuse himself from the case.
 
Nunn and Jill Barclay, who were both in McCloud’s car during the shooting, testified that Goudy and another man approached on both sides of the vehicle and opened fire. Both said they had seen Goudy with three other men earlier in the evening at another nightclub.
 
Barclay’s sister, Jackie Barclay, and LaTonya Young testified that they saw the shooting from across the street. Jackie Barclay said Goudy was the gunman on the passenger side. Young said Goudy was the gunman on the driver’s side of the vehicle.
 
Kaidi Harvell, Goudy’s roommate, testified that he drove to Anderson that night with Goudy and Goudy’s brothers, Romeo Lee (who bore a striking resemblance to Goudy) and Lamont Thomas, and that they decided to steal McCloud’s Cadillac. Harvell testified that he had received immunity in exchange for his testimony, but that he did not have any other deal with the prosecution.
 
Harvell told the jury that Goudy told him and Thomas to circle the block while Goudy and Lee went to steal the car. Harvell said that Goudy was the gunman on the driver’s side while Lee shot into the passenger side.
 
Goudy’s defense attorney called Lee as a witness. Prior to the trial, Lee had been arrested in Arizona and gave a confession to Goudy’s attorney. In the statement, Lee said that he and Harvell had been the gunmen—not Goudy.
 
Lee, however, asserted his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to testify. Goudy’s defense attorney did not attempt to introduce the confession.
 
Several alibi witnesses testified for Goudy that he was with them in Indianapolis on the night of the shooting at the “Circle City Classic,” an annual college football game.
 
Goudy was convicted by the jury of murder, attempted murder, attempted car-jacking and attempted robbery on December 21, 1995.  He was sentenced in January 1996 to 110 years in prison.
 
Not long after, Harvell pleaded guilty to assisting a criminal and was sentenced to two years in prison as part of a plea agreement with the prosecution in which he would not be prosecuted for the murder of McCloud and attempted murder of Nunn.
 
In October 1997, Lee went on trial on charges of murder and attempted murder. The evidence was based largely on his confession. During the trial, Lee’s defense attorney discovered the existence of three police reports that had not been disclosed to Goudy’s defense attorney.
 
The reports outlined statements by Jill and Jackie Barclay, Harvell, Latonya Young and one other witness. In the first report, Jill Barclay reported that she had seen one of the gunmen at a mall in Indianapolis. She later identified the man as Harvell.
 
The report described a photo lineup viewed by the Barclay sisters and Young in which all three identified Harvell as the gunman on the driver’s side of McCloud’s car.
 
The second report documented a live lineup viewed by Nunn, the Barclay sisters and another witness, Donzetta Clay. Clay and the Barclay sisters identified Harvell as one of the gunmen. Nunn identified a non-suspect.
 
The third report contained a statement from Harvell saying that one of Goudy’s alibi witnesses wanted to change her statement. At trial, that witness testified that Goudy was not in Indianapolis at the time of the shooting—testimony the defense could have impeached by suggesting that Harvell had intimidated her.
 
Lee was convicted of murder, attempted murder, attempted car-jacking and attempted robbery and in November 1997, he was sentenced to 110 years in prison.
 
Goudy’s attorney attempted to present the withheld evidence—including that Harvell had lied about not having a deal—to the Indiana Appellate Court, but the attempt to supplement the record was denied.
 
After the Indiana Supreme Court affirmed the denial, Goudy filed a petition for a federal writ of habeas corpus alleging the prosecution hid evidence and that his trial attorney had provided inadequate legal assistance for not attempting to introduce Lee’s confession at trial.
 
The federal court denied the petition, but on May 3, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit reversed and found that the prosecution had failed to reveal exculpatory evidence that could have resulted in an acquittal. Goudy was released on bail on September 2, 2010. The court did not reach a decision on the confession issue.
 
On January 13, 2012, the Madison County Prosecutor dismissed the charges. Three weeks later, Goudy filed a federal wrongful conviction lawsuit against Cummings, Napier, the city of Anderson and the state of Indiana. The lawsuit was dismissed by the U.S. District Court, but in May 2019, the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reinstated the lawsuit. In April 2020, Goudy settled his lawsuit, receiving $1 million from the city of Anderson and $400,000 from the state of Indiana.
 
– Maurice Possley
 
 

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Posting Date: 10/10/2012
Last Updated: 4/27/2020
State:Indiana
County:Madison
Most Serious Crime:Murder
Additional Convictions:Attempted Murder, Attempt, Violent
Reported Crime Date:1993
Convicted:1995
Exonerated:2012
Sentence:110 years
Race/Ethnicity:Black
Sex:Male
Age at the date of reported crime:25
Contributing Factors:Mistaken Witness ID, Perjury or False Accusation, Official Misconduct
Did DNA evidence contribute to the exoneration?:No