Original Article DNA Evidence Clears Man of Rape and Murder Conviction Nov. 9, 2004 BRUCE DALLAS GOODMAN, FREED INMATE:"IF I HAD 20 MILLION DOLLARS RIGHT THIS MINUTE...IT WOULDN'T COMPENSATE FOR THAT 20 YEARS." Not quite 20- years. But, after spending 19- years and 8- months in prison ... Bruce Dallas Goodman is a free man, tonight. DNA evidence, cleared the 54- year old of the rape and beating death, of a former girlfriend. Tonya Paponikolas was there when Goodman emerged a free man. And joins us live from the state prison. BRUCE DALLAS GOODMAN,FREED INMATE:"I'M NOT MAD AT ANY ONE PERSON...I DON'T WANT TO HURT ANYBODY..YOU KNOW..I DON'T WANT...BUT I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE SOMETHING TO HELP ME UP." http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1110InmateFreed10-ON.html Inmate freed after DNA evidence clears him in 1984 killing Associated Press Nov. 10, 2004 06:45 AM DRAPER, Utah - A man who spent 19 years in a Utah prison was freed Tuesday after DNA evidence suggested he was the wrong person convicted in the rape and beating death of a 21-year-old girl. Bruce Dallas Goodman, 54, of Culver City, Calif., walked out of prison wearing khaki pants and a borrowed brown sweater. His first seconds of freedom in almost two decades seemed both gleeful and overwhelming. "I'm glad it's over. I'm outta here," a smiling Goodman said to a crowd of reporters before being led to a car by two lawyers from the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center, which helped free Goodman. advertisement Goodman was convicted in the 1984 death of Sherry Ann Fales Williams, who was raped, sodomized, beaten to death and left bound just off an interstate exit. Genetic testing done last month on vaginal samples from the victim and a cigarette butt at the crime scene found from DNA from two men - neither of them Goodman, and neither of them identifiable. A judge threw out Goodman's conviction Wednesday. Prosecutor Von Christiansen later decided he had no plans to retry the case. "It's tough in the sense that the evidence showed it was just such a brutal murder," Christiansen said. "I'm still uneasy. I guess I made my decision because it seems the new DNA results create reasonable doubt." The Utah Attorney General's office, which had defended the case on appeal, called for the conviction to be set aside, but made clear that the evidence did not necessarily prove Goodman wasn't guilty. The office argued that the new tests only showed other people were at the crime scene, not that Goodman wasn't. Goodman was sentenced to five years to life in prison after being convicted by a judge in a 1986 non-jury trial. A rope used to tie Williams up was the same kind used at Goodman's workplace, and a crude, early blood test matched Goodman's blood type - but also about a third of the population. Witnesses also had reported seeing Goodman in Nevada arguing with Williams in a casino several hours before the murder. Goodman and two defense witnesses claimed he was in California when Williams was attacked. He had zealously maintained his innocence at parole hearings for years but accepted responsibility for the crime at a hearing in 2000, though he said he did not remember it. His attorney, Josh Bowland, said Goodman showed remorse for a crime he did not commit because he hoped to win favor with the parole board. On Tuesday, Goodman, a father of three, said he was proud he never struck a plea deal for a reduced sentence. "If nothing else, it's one of the things that I hope I was able to give my son and my daughters - an understanding that if you're right, you're right," he said. "It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks." http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2442681 Article Last Updated: 11/10/2004 01:58:57 AM DNA-vindicated inmate walks out of prison By Elizabeth Neff The Salt Lake Tribune Bruce Dallas Goodman, center, is all smiles as he leaves prison after serving 19 years on a murder charge vacated by new DNA evidence. Goodman, 54, walked out to a swarm of reporters Tuesday in Draper. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune) Gray skies and a cold rain greeted Bruce Dallas Goodman as he walked out of prison Tuesday after serving 19 years for a murder conviction overturned by DNA testing. Goodman, 54, simply said, "I'm just glad it's over." He planned to celebrate Tuesday night with a dinner of Mexican food at a Salt Lake City restaurant with his fiance and her 11-year-old daughter. Goodman said he is looking forward to making plans for spending the holidays with family - including his three grown children - as a free man. For right now, he told his attorneys, he was looking forward to having a cigarette and some Jack Daniels. "I hoped that sooner or later I would see my freedom - not a lot of hope, but I kept hoping," Goodman said of the years he spent in prison while maintaining his innocence. Tuesday's release ended a yearlong journey through the courts that began after Goodman wrote to the Salt Lake City-based Rocky Mountain Innocence Center. The center took on his case, and post-conviction DNA testing on bodily fluids from the 1984 crime scene did not match Goodman. For center President Jensie Anderson and staff attorney Joshua Bowland, Tuesday marked an emotional first victory. The privately funded center investigates Bruce Dallas Goodman enjoys a smoke on his first day of freedom outside of his attorney's office in downtown Salt Lake City on Tuesday. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune) innocence claims from Nevada, Utah and Wyoming, and has more than 40 open cases. "I'm overwhelmed," said Anderson following the release. "This is a man who has been in prison for two decades for a crime he didn't commit, and this is exactly why we founded this organization." Goodman was charged with the rape and murder of Sherry Ann Fales Williams, 21, of Salt Lake City, in November 1984. Her partly nude, bound body was found next to an Interstate 15 onramp about eight miles north of Beaver. A medical examiner determined Williams died from multiple blows to the head with a blunt object. A judge convicted Goodman of murder and he was sentenced to five years to life in prison. Fifth District Judge J. Philip Eves vacated Goodman's conviction last week, and Beaver County Attorney Von Christiansen declined to reprosecute the 20-year-old case Monday in what he called a difficult decision to make. "Ultimately it comes down to the DNA test results. . . . I'm not sure that this positively establishes his innocence, but I do think it would create reasonable doubt," Christiansen said. "I do not have him established as being at the crime scene, and I really feel that I've got to have that to prosecute." At the time, tests on the crime scene fluids showed only that the perpetrator had type A blood, the same as Goodman. The Utah Attorney General's Office agreed the new DNA evidence was enough to warrant a release, but won't say that means Goodman is innocent. They point to other circumstantial evidence in the case. Goodman and his attorneys say any case against him in light of the DNA evidence is scant at best. An emotional Goodman on Tuesday said he feels some anger that no apologies have been made for his lost years in prison. "I don't know whether I am coming or going from one minute to the next as far as emotions," he said Tuesday. "Am I mad, yeah, I'm mad as hell, you know, but I'm not mad at any one person." During his 1986 bench trial, Goodman and two defense witnesses testified they were together in Stockton, Calif., on Nov. 30, the night Williams was found. Prosecutors challenged the alibi, saying although Goodman claimed he was in California after stealing his employer's truck, it was found in Las Vegas the night before Williams died, and a service station attendant saw her and a man fitting Goodman's description there. Goodman and Williams had been living together in Las Vegas, and Goodman testified she left him Nov. 25 after the two had an argument, gathering her belongings and saying she planned to hitchhike home. According to Goodman, he followed her in his truck and attempted to stop her until she reached the Interstate - the last time he saw her. Prosecutors had alleged in court that Goodman was angered when Williams told him she was returning to her estranged husband. An employee of the Peppermill Casino in Mesquite, Nev., identified Goodman at trial as the man she saw arguing with Williams at the casino in the early hours of Nov. 30. Goodman points out he passed a polygraph test when asked about the crime. He says he also waived extradition proceedings from Texas - where he was arrested for a traffic violation and found to be a suspect in the murder - because he wanted to come back to Utah to help solve the crime. "I knew this girl," he said Tuesday. "I didn't have anything to hide." State parole board members pointed out at hearings it wasn't the first time Goodman was in trouble. He had found himself behind bars in other states for robbery, burglary and assault convictions. Calling his appeal a "close case," a split Utah Supreme Court upheld Goodman's convictions in 1988, saying the available physical evidence, although limited, was consistent with trial Judge J. Harlan Burns' verdict. Justice I. Daniel Stewart, joined by Michael Zimmerman, wrote a passionate dissent at the time. "Clearly, the state should have to prove more than the fact that the defendant could have committed the crime because he was with the victim six hours before her death and had argued with her," wrote Stewart. Goodman case timeline l November 1984 - Sherry Ann Fales Williams, 21, of Salt Lake City, is found dead next to I-15 north of Beaver. Medical examiners say she was raped and died from multiple blows to the head. l December 1984 - Prosecutors charge Bruce Dallas Goodman, who had been living with Williams in Nevada, with her rape and murder after picking him up on a traffic violation in San Antonio. l February 1986 - A judge finds Goodman guilty of second-degree murder. l December 1988 - The Utah Supreme Court upholds the conviction in a split decision. Three justices say the limited physical evidence in the case justified the verdict; two justices dissent. l November 2003 - Attorneys from the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center ask a judge to allow post-conviction DNA testing on bodily fluids saved from the crime scene. l October 2004 - The Center announces the DNA testing does not match Goodman. l November 2004 - A judge signs an order vacating Goodman's conviction after the Utah Attorney General's Office agrees he should be released. The order takes effect five days later, after Beaver County Attorney Von Christiansen declines to reprosecute the case.