Tag: Jacob Goodwin

Categories
News

A12 appeals: DeAndre Harris attackers contest convictions

White nationalists chased DeAndre Harris into the Market Street Parking Garage and beat him with pieces of the wooden barricades they tore down. (Credit Image: © Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press)

Two men convicted of malicious wounding for attacking DeAndre Harris in a downtown parking garage on August 12, 2017, are appealing their convictions, and the Virginia Attorney General’s office will now prosecute their cases.

Jacob Goodwin and Alex Ramos were sentenced to eight and six years in prison, respectively, for their part in the brutal Market Street Parking Garage beating that Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Rick Moore has repeatedly called one of the worst he’s ever seen.

While the Court of Appeals of Virginia has yet to hear the cases, a single judge granted the petitions to appeal without hearing any argument. Legal analyst Dave Heilberg says, “It’s not unusual, but it’s not what usually happens.”

He adds, “They tend not to give appeals without a good reason.”

Anthony Martin, who represents Goodwin, claims there was insufficient evidence to convict his client of malicious wounding.

“The only actions [Goodwin] had taken towards DeAndre Harris was at the most two kicks,” says the petition for appeal, which notes that Harris had a laceration to his head and an arm fracture, but that there’s no evidence that Goodwin caused harm to Harris’ head or arm. “The only conceivable areas of the body that [Goodwin] touched were Harris’ buttocks or bottom.”

To win an appeal on a claim of insufficiency of evidence is “rare,” according to Heilberg. During appellate review, the court will look at all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the commonwealth. “If there’s some evidence to support the conviction that was given, then it stands.”

Martin also argues that the court erred by denying motions to strike four potential jurors from serving on the panel that convicted Goodwin, including two who admitted to participating in Black Lives Matter rallies.

Jake Joyce represents Ramos—who went to trial the day after Goodwin’s conviction. Joyce alleges the jury pool could have been tainted if potential jurors saw media coverage of Goodwin’s trial.

“Ramos would have a stronger case than Goodwin,” suggests Heilberg, adding that the scheduling of their back-to-back trials could be unprecedented.

Joyce believes the trial should never have happened in Charlottesville.

“The danger was not just that jurors would harbor bias against the Unite the Righters who came to their city and caused a riot,” he wrote in the petition. “There is also danger that the circumstances surrounding the trial and the fear of fallout about their verdict might cause local jurors to decide their verdict on something other than the merits of the case.”

All motions to move August 12-related cases out of Charlottesville have been denied, and Heilberg says there’s a slim chance of winning an appeal on that grounds.

Lastly, Joyce argues that Ramos’ malicious wounding charge should have been reduced to a lesser form of assault, because it’s undisputed that he threw only one punch at the back of Harris’ head. But, says Heilberg, the jury made a factual determination based on the evidence it was given, and “if Ramos and Goodwin are acting in concert…one is as guilty as the other.”

A date has not been set for a full briefing or oral arguments in Richmond.

“Appellate review of criminal proceedings plays an important role in ensuring that defendants were treated fairly and afforded due process of law,” says Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania, who prosecuted the cases alongside assistant prosecutor Nina Antony. “This office welcomes and is confident in that process.”

Categories
News

Last man in August 12 parking garage beating pleads guilty

Tyler Watkins Davis. Courtesy Charlottesville Police Department

Tyler Watkins Davis entered an Alford plea February 8, and though it’s technically a guilty plea, it means the man from Middleburg, Florida, is not admitting guilt, but acknowledging that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him of malicious wounding in the brutal parking garage assault of DeAndre Harris.

Defense attorney Matthew Engle said his 50-year-old client doesn’t challenge the fact that he bashed Harris in the head with a wooden tire thumper, which caused severe trauma and required eight stitches, but he does dispute that it was done with malicious intent.

If the case went to trial, Engle said he would have argued that Davis perceived a threat outside the Market Street Parking Garage and was acting in self defense when he clobbered Harris—and that he did not intend to maim, disfigure, or kill Harris, which is required to meet the standard of actual malice.

Judge Rick Moore has often referred to the racially-charged beating as the worst he’s ever seen, but unlike the other men who participated, Engle noted that Davis only hit Harris once, and backed off when the others piled on.

When participants Jacob Goodwin and Alex Ramos went to trial for their roles in the attack, they were sentenced to eight and six years, respectively. Daniel Borden, who pleaded guilty, was given a lesser sentence of three years and 10 months in January. Davis faces a maximum sentence of 20 years, and will be sentenced in August.

Davis wasn’t caught until months after the others—and he may have Goodwin’s lawyer to thank for his arrest. At one of Goodwin’s hearings, attorney Elmer Woodard played a video of the assault, and asked why police had not arrested Davis, the then-unknown man wearing a wide-brimmed hat, whom Woodard dubbed “Boonie Hat” as he continually referred to Davis’ role in the beating. It wasn’t long after that that Davis was in cuffs.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Nina Antony said the two other men who can also be seen attacking Harris in the viral video have not yet been identified.

Categories
News

‘Just evil:’ Men sentenced in August 12 parking garage beating

White nationalists chased DeAndre Harris into the Market Street Parking Garage and beat him with pieces of the wooden barricades they tore down. (Credit Image: © Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press)

The two young men handed lengthy prison sentences last week for their involvement in the August 12, 2017, brutal parking garage beating of DeAndre Harris sat in stark contrast to one another in Charlottesville Circuit Court.

One’s remorse was hard to miss. Jacob Goodwin, the Arkansas man who can be seen in videos wearing full tactical gear and kicking Harris multiple times as he lay immobile in the Market Street Parking Garage, hung his head for most of his August 23 hearing.

Last summer, a group of white nationalists chased Harris into the parking garage, surrounding him and striking him with their homemade weapons, fists, and feet. They knocked him to the ground at least twice, and continued to beat him as he struggled to get up.

Jacob Goodwin

Goodwin had tears in his eyes as Judge Rick Moore handed down a 10-year sentence with two years suspended. He turned to look at his mother, who had collapsed into his father’s lap, and her muffled sobs could be heard throughout the courtroom.

The jury that found Goodwin guilty of malicious wounding in May recommended the 10-year sentence, but suggested that some time be suspended. Prosecutor Nina-Alice Antony, who asked the judge to suspend no more than two years, said the jury didn’t have the benefit of nearly 20 letters from friends and family that were sent on Goodwin’s behalf.

The contents of the letters were not discussed, but they apparently described a different man than the one seen in the August 12 videotapes—a white man with a shield and goggles, who also wore a pin that said “88,” code for “Heil Hitler,” as he beat a bloodied black man at the largest gathering of white supremacists in recent history.

“[This] is probably him on his worst day,” Antony said. “We are dealing with a snapshot of Mr. Goodwin’s life.”

Judge Moore said he hoped so, and called it one of the most “brutal, one-sided beatings” he’d ever seen. As for the good man Goodwin was shown to be in the letters Moore received, the judge said, “How does somebody who’s this person become the person I saw on the video?”

Before Goodwin was told he’d serve eight years, he told the court he didn’t get the chance to apologize during his trial.

“I’m truly, genuinely sorry,” he said. “I can’t even imagine the aftermath of what happened—how this has affected [Harris’] life.”

Antony said Harris declined to submit a victim impact statement.

“He has been working over the past several months on putting this matter behind him,” she said. Echoed the judge, “Mr. Harris may get over his physical injuries. I don’t know that he’ll ever get over his emotional or psychological injuries.”

Later that day, an apology that came from another man who participated in the beating wasn’t as sincere.

Alex Ramos’ face was blank as Moore grappled with how much prison time to impose.

Alex Ramos, pictured with his right fist raised, and Jacob Goodwin, pictured carrying a shield.

In viral videos, the man who came to the Unite the Right rally from Georgia can be seen wearing a red Make America Great Again hat and a white tank top as he throws one of the last punches in the Market Street Parking Garage melee.

The judge stressed that Ramos didn’t get involved until Harris was already on the ground, and the beating was almost over.

“It’s like he had to interject himself when the person was already beat to pieces,” Moore said. “It’s inhumane.”

Alex Ramos

He decided on a six-year sentence for Ramos, which the jury recommended when they also found him guilty of malicious wounding in May, and said it was easier to decide in this case than in Goodwin’s or that of Richard Preston, the KKK imperial wizard he sentenced two days prior to four years in prison for firing a gun within 1,000 feet of a school on August 12, 2017 (see article on p. 13).

When Ramos took the witness stand, his defense attorney, Jake Joyce, asked him about a couple of Facebook posts he made after the Unite the Right rally, in which Ramos claimed victory, and said of the beating: “We stomped ass. Getting some was fucking fun.”

“I feel pretty embarrassed about it,” Ramos told the judge.

His attorney also noted the “elephant in the room:” Ramos is Hispanic, and not a white nationalist. Ramos described himself as a “conservative” and said he’s always been “somewhat of an outcast” at right-wing events.

The judge said Ramos fought as if he was trying to prove himself or impress somebody.

As for ganging up on Harris in the parking lot, Ramos said, “I made a wrong judgment call…I feel pretty bad. I kinda wish I could apologize to Mr. Harris.”

When advocating for Ramos to serve the full six-year sentence, Antony said he “might still need some time to think.”

Seemingly changing his demeanor just moments before his official sentence was handed down, Ramos said, “I am really sorry.”

“You can spend the rest of your life thinking about that,” the judge said. “It’s just evil.”

Categories
News

Guilty: First August 12 parking garage beater convicted

Jacob Goodwin, one of four men charged in the beating of DeAndre Harris August 12, was found guilty of malicious wounding. Charlottesville police

 

A Charlottesville jury decided May 1 that a man from Ward, Arkansas, who took part in a brutal beatdown of a local black man in the Market Street Parking Garage on August 12, was guilty of malicious wounding, potentially setting the bar for three other assailants accused of the same crime in the same incident, and who are set to go on trial in the very near future.

In videos from the Unite the Right rally that have since been viewed tens of thousands of times, Jacob Goodwin can be seen wearing all black tactical gear, a helmet, goggles, and two pins—one that said “88,” or code for “Heil Hitler,” and one with the logo of the Traditionalist Worker Party—and carrying a shield when kicking DeAndre Harris multiple times among a gaggle of other white supremacists.

Jurors were visibly disturbed while watching.

“He has yet to express any regret for his actions that day,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania, when asking the jury to consider a jail sentence recommendation. “And I would submit he has none.”

The man identified as a self-described white rights activist in an NBC documentary sat in court wearing a suit and tie and with a long, brown braided ponytail. During his testimony, he said he thought he was being attacked by Harris, and he was using his feet to defend himself.

“To be honest, I was terrified,” he said, adding that he thought he’d be sent to the hospital “terribly hurt,” or that he might even “perish.”

The jury of nine women and three men didn’t buy it, and they recommended giving Goodwin a 10-year sentence with perhaps some time suspended, a $25,000 fine and empathy training. Judge Rick Moore set an official sentencing for August 23.

Goodwin’s mother had her head in her hands when defense attorney Elmer Woodard wrapped up his closing argument, in which he insisted that Goodwin was legally allowed to defend himself from a perceived threat, which protects the Arkansas man from being convicted of malicious wounding. For that specific charge, a prosecutor must show an attempt to kill, maim or disable, or evidence of ill will or spite, according to the attorneys.

“They want you to convict this man because he’s a white man and DeAndre’s a black man,” Woodard said to the jury. The white man’s parents and a handful of other supporters, including Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler, were present for the two-day trial.

So were community members who have aggressively praised Harris for his fight against white supremacy that day in August, and who demanded that Platania drop a malicious wounding charge that Harris was initially given from the event, when he allegedly bashed a man in the head with a Maglite moments before he was beaten to the ground.

Harris’ charge was amended to assault and he was acquitted in Charlottesville General District Court in March.

Woodard argued that while his client was wearing armor, the Maglite and towel Harris carried were the real weapons, and that the man beaten by white supremacists was the true aggressor.

“Body armor’s a defensive thing,” said Woodard. “Nobody ever got beaten to death with body armor.”

And while the defense attorney argued several times that Harris’ most significant injuries, such as the head laceration that required eight stitches, were a result of the other men involved and not Goodwin, Nina-Alice Antony, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney, said they were acting in concert.

“Each person is responsible, not just for his specific action, but the action of the group,” she said, adding that concert of action can happen in an instant, even between people who are unknown to each other. “You don’t have to have a handshake agreement before that.”

The three other men charged with malicious wounding in the parking garage beatdown are Alex Ramos, Daniel Borden and Tyler Watkins Davis. Ramos goes on trial today.

Woodardisms

Attorney Elmer Woodard. Photo Natalie Jacobsen

This Blairs, Virginia, attorney was largely unknown in the Charlottesville area until he began representing a bevy of white supremacists with Unite the Right-related charges, including Jacob Goodwin, “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell and Richard Preston, the KKK leader charged with firing his gun on August 12. Now he’s one of the most talked about defenders in town. Here’s what he had to say at Goodwin’s May 1 trial:

”Gravity applies to DeAndre just like it applies to you and me.”

—on why Harris didn’t fall back down, but rather stood up after the prosecutor argued that Goodwin kicked him so hard that he lifted off the ground

“Why DeAndre, you have upset me.”

—on what Goodwin would have said if he truly felt anger, and was acting out of malice

“Is it concert of action to stand in the Hardee’s line together?”

—on how people who don’t know each other can act together and share similar views

”If it’s raining, you put on a raincoat. If there’s fighting, you put on a helmet.”

—on why Goodwin was wearing tactical gear and a helmet

 

Categories
News

In brief: Trashy people, rash of convictions, UVA’s warning and more

The 96 groups that have adopted highways in Albemarle can't keep up with the trash tossers. Hawkins Dale

Spring cleaning

As the weather warms, more people are outside and noticing just how trashy our scenic highways are. That’s when local groups that have adopted a highway under the Virginia Department of Transportation don their orange blaze vests and go clean up after their filthy neighbors.

Groups that volunteer are asked to take care of a two-mile stretch of road at least two times a year. After two pickups, the group is eligible to put its name on a blue Adopt-a-Highway sign. VDOT supplies orange trash bags, vests and roll-up signs to warn vehicles a pickup is in process, and will come remove the bags.

Some adopters have been known to abandon their highway, and resident VDOT administrator Joel DeNunzio says if a group hasn’t picked up in a certain amount of time, it can lose its blue signage. “Certain groups may be more interested in having their names on highway signs,” he concedes.

Fortunately that’s the exception, and volunteers are welcome. “I will let anybody adopt any highway I think is safe,” says DeNunzio. “They’re only denied if I don’t think it’s safe. We don’t want to have inexperienced people or kids on dangerous roads.”

  • 96 groups have adopted roads in Albemarle County
  • 192 miles of road are adopted
  • 189 bags of trash have been picked up by volunteers so far this year

Source VDOT

“If the administration remains loudly silent in the face of white supremacy, it will perpetuate the University’s painful and pervasive history of racial violence.”—Petition from UVA students to President Teresa Sullivan and the Board of Visitors April 27, the same day the university issued a no trespass warning to Jason Kessler.

Beating trial begins

Jacob Goodwin

The first of four jury trials in the August 12 malicious wounding of DeAndre Harris got underway April 30. It took six hours to seat a jury for Jacob Goodwin, 23, from Ward, Arkansas. Goodwin’s attorney, Elmer Woodard, admits Goodwin kicked Harris but says that didn’t cause the serious injuries Harris suffered.

Sex trafficker convicted

A trial originally scheduled for five days stretched nearly two weeks before a jury, after deliberating 15 hours, convicted Quincy Edwards, 34, of 10 counts of commercial sex trafficking and of procuring a person for financial gain. The Albemarle jury recommended 22 years in prison. Edwards was arrested in 2015 at the Royal Inn, and his victim said she had sex with as many as 20 men a day for her heroin supply.

Teacher pleads guilty

Richard Wellbeloved-Stone

Popular former CHS environmental sciences teacher Richard Wellbeloved-Stone, 57, pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography April 26 in U.S. District Court. He came to law enforcement’s attention while chatting with an undercover agent in the U.K. and describing his fantasies about a prepubescent girl. Police found images of a girl’s vagina on Wellbeloved-Stone’s cell phone.

Garrett’s mandatory minimums

Congressmen Tom Garrett, Jared Polis (D-CO) and Ken Buck (R-CO) introduced the Review Every Act Diligently In Total—READ IT—resolution to amend House rules to establish a mandatory minimum review period for all legislation that is brought to a vote.

Warmbiers sue North Korea

The parents of UVA student Otto Warmbier, who was held in North Korea for 17 months before being returned to the U.S. last June in an unresponsive state, have sued the rogue nation for torturing their son as Kim Jong Un makes nice with South Korea and plans a meeting with President Donald Trump. Warmbier died shortly after his return.

Drugs and horses

Albemarle County Police had a busy April 28 running a drug take-back program at Sentara Martha Jefferson and policing 15,000 racegoers at Foxfield. The number of drugs collected was down from last year, but so were the traffic tickets at Foxfield. Collecting drugs or dealing with drunk UVA students—it’s one way to enjoy a beautiful spring day. Preliminary numbers for those events are:

Foxfield

Spring 2018

  • 15,000 racegoers
  • 5 arrests
  • 31 medical emergencies, 12 known to be alcohol related
  • 3 medical transports to ER
  • 0 traffic tickets

Spring 2017

  • 12,000-14,000 racegoers
  • 5 arrests, including 1 DUI  hit-and-run crash
  • 38 medical emergencies
  • 2 medical transports to ER
  • 19 traffic tickets
  • 1 ticket for marijuana possession

Drug take-back

Spring 2018

  • 364 vehicles
  • 25 bags collected
  • 768 pounds of meds
  • 428 pounds of needles

Spring 2017

  • 413 vehicles
  • 37 bags collected
  • 1,084 pounds of meds
  • 362 pounds of needles
Categories
News

Judge takes parking under advisement in August 12 case

Jacob Goodwin, one of four men charged in the beating of DeAndre Harris August 12, was found guilty of malicious wounding. Charlottesville police

An attorney for an Arkansas man who can be seen kicking DeAndre Harris in the face in videos of the August 12 Market Street Parking Garage brawl at the summer’s Unite the Right rally is now asking for a change of venue for his client’s upcoming trial.

Elmer Woodard—the lawyer from Blairs who represents Jacob Goodwin, as well as “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell and KKK leader Richard Preston—says Goodwin can’t get a fair trial in Charlottesville.

For one, because jurors are likely to park in the closest garage, which also happens to be the scene of the crime.

And if a judge bars them from parking there, their second choice could lead them to Charlottesville Circuit Court up Heather Heyer Way—the street recently renamed in honor of the 32-year-old woman who was killed on the day of Goodwin’s alleged offense.

“I think that’s a huge problem in seating a jury,” Woodard told the judge. Jurors are not legally allowed to visit a crime scene outside of the court’s control, he added.

But a parking problem isn’t the only reason he said his client can’t be tried here.

Woodard noted that media coverage of Goodwin often mentions Heyer’s death, “inflating” that the man who came to court in a gray and white-striped jail jumpsuit, with a brown beard and long, braided ponytail, was involved. Charlottesville residents aren’t able to be impartial about whether he should be found guilty of malicious wounding, said the attorney.

There’s also the potential for “sleeper activists,” he said—a phrase that Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler’s attorney, Mike Hallahan, said in a motion to change the venue of Kessler’s perjury trial. These people, the lawyers say, would intentionally try to be seated on the jury to convict unfavorable defendants.

Woodard said he no longer pays attention to what’s reported in local media about his clients.

“I had to stop reading [it] because my eyes crossed,” he said.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Nina-Alice Antony agreed with Woodard that jurors parking in the garage on Market Street could be problematic, but said the defense’s argument that seating a jury would be difficult is irrelevant.

“It’s not whether seating the jury will be difficult, it’s whether the court can seat an impartial jury,” she said. During the voir dire portion of the trial, Woodard will have the opportunity to examine and interview potential jurors, and motion to strike individuals he deems unfit from the jury pool.

Judge Rick Moore agreed that he could seat an impartial jury, but took the motion under advisement to consider the parking dilemma. He also denied a defense motion to exclude evidence.

The evidence in question was a surveillance video of the attack, which plays at 15 frames per second, while all other known videos that will be admitted during the trial are 30 frames per second.

Woodard opened his argument on that motion in an unusual way. In his initial statement, he only actually voiced every other word to the judge, or half the sentence.

He said a video that plays at 15 frames per second shows only half of what happened and would be misleading to a jury, as it was misleading to the judge when he spoke every other word of a sentence.

“You didn’t mislead me,” said Moore. “I just didn’t know what you were saying.”

Goodwin’s two-day jury trial is scheduled to begin April 30.

Categories
News

Goodwin motions denied in DeAndre Harris attacks

Jacob Goodwin, one of four men charged in the beating of DeAndre Harris August 12, was found guilty of malicious wounding. Charlottesville police

An Arkansas man whose own attorney admits he kicked DeAndre Harris in the Market Street Garage August 12 filed two motions to exclude evidence of the brutal beating because he claimed the serious injuries to Harris happened before the kicks.

Jacob Goodwin, 23, of Ward, Arkansas, was arrested in November and charged with malicious wounding, a felony that carries up to 20 years in prison and a minimum five-year sentence.

His attorney from Blairs, Elmer Woodard, spent most of the March 7 hearing showing video to Judge Rick Moore to establish that assailants such as Tyler Davis, the 49-year-old Florida man arrested January 24, and others identified as “Salmon Shirt” and “White Helmet” were the ones who seriously injured Harris, and that Harris’ broken wrist and head gash that required staples happened before Goodwin came on the scene to deliver a few kicks to his stomach and legs.

Harris “attacked Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Goodwin defended himself,” said Woodard. He contended that a list of Harris’ injuries was “unbiased testimony from medical specialists,” and did not include any bruises on his stomach. “That’s not malicious wounding,” he said. “This shouldn’t come into evidence against him because it happened before he came in.”

Moore denied Woodard’s motion to exclude that evidence and said it would be up to a jury to determine whether Goodwin caused Harris’ injuries. “This is a melee. He’s clearly kicked by your client multiple times,”  said Moore. “I can’t find this evidence irrelevant.”

Prosecutor Nina Antony said the commonwealth is proceeding on a theory that the assault was “concert of action by a mob” that Goodwin was part of, even if Harris’ injuries were caused by others.

“You can’t say it’s concert of action” when it’s people defending themselves,” argued Woodard.

Moore denied Woodard’s motions “based on the videos I’ve seen,” he said. Goodwin is scheduled for a jury trial April 30.

Woodard is also defending other white supremacists arrested in August 12 weekend events, including Baltimore Confederate White Knights of the KKK imperial wizard Richard Preston, charged with firing a gun after an unlawful assembly was declared in Emancipation Park, and “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell.

Woodard also represents Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler in his March 6 civil suit against the city for denying his August 12 anniversary permit.

 

 

 

 

Categories
News

Split decision: Shooter gets bond, alleged assailant doesn’t

KKK imperial wizard Richard Wilson Preston is charged with firing a gun August 12. ACLU video

 

Two ponytailed Unite the Right participants represented by the same Blairs, Virginia-based lawyer had different fates in their January 4 bond hearings in Charlottesville Circuit Court.

Judge Humes Franklin granted 52-year-old Baltimore resident Richard Preston, an imperial wizard of the Confederate White Knights of the KKK who was filmed firing a gun during the August 12 Unite the Right rally, a $50,000 cash bond with the instruction to not leave the state, possess a firearm or “engage in any assemblies, if you will.”

Defense attorney Elmer Woodard called on Billy Snuffer Sr., the imperial wizard of the Rebel Brigade Knights of the True Invisible Empire, who testified he had a “trailer down on the farm” in Martinsville, where he would allow Preston to live pending his three-day trial in May.

Snuffer, who told the judge he owns Snuffer’s Auto Repair in Buchanan, offered to give Preston a job while out on bond, but it is unclear whether the judge will allow Preston to leave the trailer for matters other than court and to meet with his attorney, who also represents several other white nationalists, including “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell.

In a separate hearing on the same day, Jacob Goodwin, a 22-year-old from Arkansas who allegedly participated in the Market Street Parking Garage beatdown of DeAndre Harris, was denied his shot at getting out of jail.

Goodwin, wearing all-black clothing, black goggles, a helmet and carrying a shield on August 12, can be identified in widely circulated videos of the attack, but Woodard told the judge his client was simply walking to his car in the garage when he encountered two groups of people “exercising their First Amendment rights with great vigor,” and unintentionally became involved in the scuffle.

“I was walking and DeAndre Harris come sprinting at me,” Goodwin testified. “He come at me, kind of bounced off my shield and I kicked him.”

On a small scrap of paper, Woodard offered to the judge an address apparently near Richmond where a friend identified by the prosecution as Eric Davis had invited Goodwin to live, if granted bond.

When Franklin asked how long Goodwin had known the Central Virginia resident, the Arkansas man first said four months, but quickly changed his answer to about a year. No one could determine whether Goodwin’s friend, whom he said he met at a “political meeting” in Kentucky and roomed with in hotels, lived in a house or apartment near Richmond, or whether he has a criminal record.

As Franklin was in the process of denying the request for bond, Matthew Heimbach—a co-founder of the Traditionalist Worker Party and Holocaust denier often considered to be the face of a new generation of white nationalists—approached the defense and whispered for several seconds before a deputy ordered him to sit down.

“Apparently someone in the courtroom has the answer to your questions,” interjected Woodard, but the ruling had already been made, Heimbach had already retaken his seat next to Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler and Franklin said he was done with that hearing for the day.

Categories
News

August 12 shooter and Market Street Garage attackers go to grand jury

Imperial wizard Billy Snuffer came to court to support fellow Klansman Richard Preston, accused of firing a gun at Emancipation Park August 12. Daryl Davis has made it a mission to meet KKKers to find out why they hate him for the color of his skin. Eze Amos

Three out-of-towners who were charged following the August 12 Unite the Right rally were in court December 14 for preliminary hearings, where a judge determined there was probable cause to seek grand jury indictments.

Baltimore resident and Confederate White Knights of the KKK imperial wizard Richard Preston, 52, is charged with shooting a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school. Alex Michael Ramos, 34, from Jackson, Georgia, is charged with felonious assault, and Jacob Scott Goodwin, 23, from Ward, Arkansas, is charged with malicious wounding, both in the Market Street Garage beating of Deandre Harris.

The three men were in court the same day as the hearing for James Fields, the man accused of killing Heather Heyer when he drove into a crowd. The judge ordered increased security in the courtroom, and he warned that anyone making noise would be removed.

Fellow KKKers, including Billy Snuffer, imperial wizard of the Rebel Brigade Knights of the True Invisible Empire, showed up in support of Preston.

Preston’s attorney, Elmer Woodard, also represents Goodwin and “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell. The Danville attorney, known for his showmanship in his appearances here, was corrected twice on the pronunciation of the name of Commonwealth’s Attorney-elect Joe Platania.

Platania called one witness, attorney and former mayor Frank Buck, who was near the corner of Market and Second streets when the rally was declared an unlawful assembly and whites-righters streamed out of Emancipation Park.

Buck testified he saw Preston point his gun at Corey Long, who made a flamethrower from an aerosol can. “I heard the gun discharge,” he said, and he saw a puff in the mulch near Long’s feet.

ACLU video

He followed Preston at a distance, and then filed a complaint with a magistrate. “He fired a handgun in the midst of people,” said Buck. “That struck me as an unlawful discharge.”

Woodard, who brought an aerosol can that he shook in court, asked Buck why he didn’t file a complaint against Long.

At that point, Judge Bob Downer interrupted the attorney. “All we’re here for today is to determine whether a firearm was unlawfully fired within 1,000 feet of a school. You seem to quibble about the distance of the flamethrower.”

Widely circulated video shows Preston firing a Ruger SR9 in the direction of Long, who was subpoenaed by Woodard but did not appear in court.

Woodard produced four witnesses who testified Preston saved them from the flamethrower. “There was nowhere to go and I was getting ready to be burned alive,” said Glasgow resident Scott Woods.

Another witness was testifying to the proficiency of Preston’s shooting when Downer interrupted again and reminded the lawyer that the preliminary hearing was only to determine probable cause that Preston fired his gun in the vicinity of Park School.

Despite Woodard’s argument that Preston’s firing was justifiable, that he kept people from being burned and was a “hero,” Downer certified the charge to the grand jury, which indicted him December 18.

Jacob Goodwin, Alex Michael Ramos and Richard Preston were in court December 14 for August 12-related charges. Charlottesville police

Detective Declan Hickey described on the stand his investigation into the beating of Harris, and the identification of some of the men who allegedly took part in that, including Goodwin and Ramos.

Goodwin was arrested October 11, and Hickey pointed him out in a video wearing all black and carrying a shield. Goodwin’s attorney painted a picture of self-defense and said Harris “ran at this man. He had to defend himself.”

Woodard asked the detective why he didn’t arrest another man in the video, who was wearing a brimmed hat and whom Woodard dubbed “Boonie Hat.”

“What’s appalling,” he said, “is that the commonwealth didn’t know Boonie Hat existed.”

He had Goodwin stand up, and the lawyer kneed him in the buttocks, apparently to demonstrate the extent of Goodwin’s involvement, contending, “That’s not malicious wounding.”

Ramos’ attorney, Jake Joyce, argued his client’s involvement in the beating did not rise to malicious wounding. “It might be assault and battery,” he said.

Downer did not buy those arguments, and said under the standard of probable cause, there was enough evidence to certify the charges to the grand jury, which met December 18 and handed down indictments for the two men. As for Boonie Hat, the judge said he hoped police find him.