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Spencer Corey
GOODMAN
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Robbery
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder:
July 2,
1991
Date
of arrest:
August 7,
1991
Date of birth:
October 28,
1968
Victim profile: Cecile Ham
(female, 38)
Method of murder:
Beating
Location: Harris County, Texas, USA
Status: Executed
by lethal injection in Texas on January 12,
2000
Summary:
Cecile Ham left her Houston residence at approximately 1:20 p.m.,
July 2, 1991. When she did not return, she was reported missing the
next day.
On August 7, 1991, Goodman was arrested driving and wrecking Ham's
vehicle in Colorado after a high-speed chase.
Goodman confessed to her murder, saying that the day he got out of
jail, instead of going to his halfway house, he just started walking.
Eventually he ended up in a Walgreens parking lot in Houston, and as
Ham was getting into her Cadillac, he attacked her because his feet
hurt and he wanted some transportation. "I shoved her over with one
hand and punched her just under the left ear, to knock her out. She
fell over to the passenger's side and was knocked unconscious. I got
into the driver's seat. I think that I may have hit her in the back
of the neck to make sure that she was unconscious. Later, he pulled
off the main road, "used martial arts and broke the lady's neck. I
don't know why I did it, but I know that I was lost. I then put her
in the trunk of the car."
Later, he dumped the body in a field. Following his arrest, he
directed officers to her remains.
At trial, Goodman testified and admitted the abduction, but denied
breaking her neck or intending to cause her death.
Goodman had prior convictions for Burglary in 1989 (2 years
imprisonment), Auto Theft (5 years). He was released on parole,
revoked, then again paroled on July 1, 1990, the day before the
murder.
Texas Attorney General
Media Advisory
SPENCER COREY GOODMAN SCHEDULED
TO BE EXECUTED
AUSTIN - Friday, January 14, 2000 - Texas
Attorney General John Cornyn offers the following information on
Spencer Corey Goodman who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m.,
Tuesday, January 18th:
FACTS OF THE CRIME
Cecile Ham left her Houston residence at
approximately 1:20 p.m., July 2, 1991. A friend at the residence
expected her to return, but she did not return, and she was reported
missing the next day.
At the time of her disappearance, Ham was 48
years old, approximately five feet three inches in height, and
approximately 130 pounds in weight. She owned a red 1991 Cadillac
automobile.
On August 7, 1991, a deputy sheriff in Eagle
County, Colorado, arrested Spencer Corey Goodman after a high-speed
automobile chase through the Colorado mountains.
Goodman surrendered
to the deputy only after driving Ham's Cadillac over a low cliff and
wrecking it. Shortly thereafter, Goodman gave a written statement,
which read in relevant part:
On July 1, 1991, I was released from the old
Bexar County Jail where I was being held [at a ] Wackenhut Parole
Violators Facility. I was given a bus ride back to Houston, Texas by
Wackenhut and dropped off on the east side of town at 9:30 a.m. I
was given my papers to report to Texas House at 5:30 p.m. that
night. Instead of going to the halfway house I started walking west.
I walked most of the night. . . . . I laid down for a while along
the side of the railroad tracks but I kept getting eat up by
mosquitos so I could not sleep.
During the day on Tuesday, July 2,
1991, I started walking out Memorial Drive. During the mid-afternoon
it started raining. I walked up into a Walgreens parking lot maybe
about 4:00 p.m. and just hung around the parking lot for about 20 to
30 minutes. I saw a white female drive up in a 1991 red Cadillac.
She pulled up in the firelane along the blind side of the parking
lot and then went into the Walgreens store. At that time I was not
really watching her, but I don't think that she stayed inside the
drug store very long. When the lady came out of the store she opened
the driver's door and started getting into the car. I decided at
that point that I wanted to take her car from her. I had been
walking for a long time and my feet hurt and I wanted some
transportation. I ran up behind her while the driver's door was
still open. She was sitting behind the wheel, and I shoved her over
with one hand and punched her just under the left ear, to knock her
out. She fell over to the passenger's side and was knocked
unconscious. I got into the driver's seat. I think that I may have
hit her in the back of the neck to make sure that she was
unconscious. I think that the keys to the car were in her hand
because they fell to the floor. I picked them up and started the car
and then looked around to see if anyone had seen what happened. It
was raining, and there was nobody around the parking lot. I first
pulled out of the parking lot and turned right on Memorial going
west, but there was a subdivision down that way, so I turned around
and went to the Dairy Ashford for a ways and then turned off towards
the west. I know that I was near a high school off of Dairy Ashford.
I pulled off the main road and parked on a side road off behind this
little building. I then used martial arts and broke the lady's neck.
I don't know why I did it, but I know that I was lost. I then put
her in the trunk of the car. I did not have on a shirt because my
shirt was wet from the rain. I was also wearing jogging pants. After
I put her in the trunk, I drove down this road. I was right by this
high school when I saw this guy in a truck. I then asked him how to
get to I-10. . . . I followed the guy's direction. As I was driving
I went through the lady's purse and got out her wallet. I found
about $20.00 and some change in her purse and some credit cards. I
saw an Exxon gas station at HWY 6 and Westheimer so I stopped and
filled up with gas. I used the Exxon gas card and signed the name on
the card. I then got on I-10 and headed west. . . . . . . I knew
that she was dead when I put her in the trunk because I felt on her
pulse. . . .
On August 8, 1991, Goodman, after being returned
to Texas, led law enforcement officials to the remains of his
victim's body, which he had dumped in an open field near Uvalde. An
autopsy of the remains confirmed that they were those of Ham and
revealed that the cause of her death had been "blunt trauma to [her]
head and neck." On August 9, 1991, at a Houston police station,
Goodman gave a videotaped statement, which was consistent with his
earlier written statement. The videotape showed that Goodman was an
adult male approximately twenty years of age, apparently healthy and
strong, and approximately six feet in height and 200 pounds in
weight.
Goodman testified in his defense and admitted
that, while in the Walgreens parking lot in Houston on July 2, 1991,
he struck Ham in the head and neck with his fist in order to steal
her car, but he denied breaking her neck or intending to cause her
death.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On January 13, 1992, Goodman was indicted in Fort
Bend County, Texas, with the capital offense of the intentional
murder of Cecile Ham in the course of robbery or kidnapping.
A jury
found Goodman guilty of the capital offense on May 26, 1992. A
separate punishment hearing ensued, and, on June 1, 1992, the jury
answered affirmatively the two special issues submitted to them and
in accordance with state law, the trial court assessed punishment at
death.
Appeal was automatic to the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals, which affirmed the conviction and sentence on
April 10, 1996, and denied a motion for rehearing on May 15, 1996.
Goodman did not seek certiorari review to the United States Supreme
Court.
Goodman next filed an application for state writ of habeas
corpus with the convicting court on April 24, 1997. The trial court
entered findings of fact and conclusions of law recommending that
habeas relief be denied, and these findings were adopted by the
Court of Criminal Appeals on October 8, 1997. Goodman did not seek
certiorari review to the Supreme Court.
Goodman next filed a federal habeas petition in
the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas,
Houston Division, on November 4, 1997, and an amended petition on
April 27, 1998.
However, on May 29, 1998, prior to the State filing
a response to the petition, Goodman unilaterally dismissed his
federal action. Several days later, on June 1, 1998, Goodman filed a
second application for state writ of habeas corpus with the
convicting court.
The Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed the second
application as an abuse of the writ under statutory provisions on
July 1, 1998. Goodman did not seek certiorari review to the Supreme
Court. On July 13, 1998, returned to the federal district court by
filing a second federal habeas petition.
Goodman filed an amended
petition on October 5, 1998. The State responded to the merits of
the claims raised in the petition and also argued that the second
petition was not timely filed under the controlling federal habeas
statute.
On February 22, 1999, the district court entered an order
dismissing the petition as time barred and denying Goodman
permission to appeal. On March 23, 1999, and April 7, 1999, the
district court entered orders denying several post-judgment motions
filed by Goodman.
On September 16, 1999, the United States Court of
Appeals for the Fifth Circuit similarly denied Goodman permission to
appeal. Goodman then filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the
United States Supreme Court, which is pending before the Court.
PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY
At the punishment phase of trial, the State
presented evidence of Goodman's significant criminal record.
On January 10, 1989, in Harris County, Goodman
was convicted of the felony offense of burglary of a building and
sentenced to imprisonment for two years.
On March 6, 1989, in Runnels County, Goodman
received seven years deferred-adjudication probation on a felony
charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
On August 27, 1990, Goodman's deferred-adjudication
probation was revoked and he was convicted of unauthorized use of a
motor vehicle and sentenced to imprisonment for five years.
He was paroled in December 1990, but he soon
violated the conditions of his parole and was sent to the Wackenhut
Parole Violators Facility in Bexar County. He was paroled from
Wackenhut on July 1, 1991, but he immediately violated the
conditions of his parole again by not reporting to the Texas House,
a "halfway house," in Houston. The very next day, he murdered Cecile
Ham.
Several prosecution witnesses also testified
regarding Goodman's character.
Houston Police Department Sergeant J.W. Belk
testified that, based on his experience in more than 100 homicide
investigations, he believed Goodman had the "psychological profile"
of a "cold-blooded murderer."
Sociologist James W. Marquart testified that an
individual with appellant's background would pose "a risk" of future
acts of criminal violence. Gregory Eric Holmes testified that
Goodman once told him that he (i.e., Goodman) had been a gang member
while in prison and had engaged in gang violence.
Finally, David William Carleton testified that
Goodman had threatened his life during an encounter they had several
days after Goodman committed the instant offense.
DRUGS AND/OR ALCOHOL
There was no evidence of
drug or alcohol use connected with the instant offense.
ProDeathPenalty.com
Spencer Corey Goodman had been on parole less
than 24 hours when he abducted 48-year-old Cecile Ham, the wife of
Bill Ham, manager of the rock group ZZ Top.
He kidnapped her from the parking lot of a
drugstore because he was tired of walking and wanted her red
Cadillac. Goodman appealed his conviction saying that there was
insufficient evidence to prove that he intentionally killed Ham and
that he posed a future danger - elements that must be proved in a
capital murder case.
The court disagreed, and pointed in particular to
the confession he made after he was arrested in Eagle County, Colo.,
where authorities spotted him driving Ham's car more than a month
after her disappearance.
In his confession, Goodman told police that
rather than reporting to a parole halfway house in Houston when he
was released from prison, he walked the streets of Houston for hours.
He said he saw his victim leave a drugstore. "I
decided at that point that I wanted to take her car from her," his
confession states. "I had been walking for a long time and my feet
hurt." Goodman knocked Ham unconscious by striking her in the back
of the head and later "used martial arts and broke the lady's neck,"
according to court records.
He then stuffed the body in the trunk of
her car, and drove to Colorado, using the woman's credit cards to
buy beer and cigarettes. He dumped the body in a remote area; after
his arrest, Goodman led authorities to the body.
The jury deliberated only 3 hours before
sentencing Goodman to death. Cecile's husband Bill and her mother,
Louella Autrey of Waxahachie, were present when the sentence was
read and released a written statement before leaving the courthouse.
"The goodness that was Cecile will never again touch our lives," the
statement read. "The sweetness of her smile and humor in adversity
will never strengthen us again except as a memory. Every good and
gracious trait that was Cecile is gone but will never be forgotten."
The statement thanked law enforcement officers
and prosecutors and challenged the community to work for a system
that "considers the rights of victims to be of supreme importance.
In memory of our beloved Cecile, the charge is to work toward a
system dedicated to the freedom to live our lives unharmed and safe."
The trial lasted two weeks and included the
testimony of dozens of witnesses. Goodman's adoptive father, Barnard
Goodman Sr., 62, testified that his immediate family fears the
defendant -- who, at his own request, remained outside the courtroom
during his father's testimony.
Under cross-examination by Rosen, the father said
he placed the decision of life in prison or death in the jury's
hands. "At this point, he's broken the heart of our family, and we
would rather not be any further involved in this than we have to,"
he said. In a letter, the elder Goodman told his son the whole
family loved him when he was taken in at age 1. "I tried so hard
when you were young to turn you around," the letter read. "We
couldn't turn you around and you continued to do things that were
against our laws, God's laws and the laws of society." The father
and other family members left the courtroom after his testimony.
Assistant District Attorney Fred Felcman, in
closing arguments, called the defendant "society's worst nightmare."
He reminded jurors of Goodman's courtroom conduct when he tried to
leave during testimony. "Even then, for some reason, he feels he has
the right to leave whenever he wants to," Felcman said.
Prosecutors
reminded jurors that the two-time ex-con received countless chances
from his family and from the criminal justice system. "Time and time
again, leniency has been extended to this man through our criminal
justice system. Just as often, this man has spit in the face of
society."
Fight the Death Penalty in the
USA
Spencer Corey Goodman, 31, 00-01-18, Texas
Spencer Corey Goodman was executed by injection
Tuesday night for snapping the neck of a Houston woman after
knocking her unconscious and stealing her car. Minutes before the
execution, a witness turned to the victim's husband, Bill Ham,
manager of rock group ZZ Top, and asked how he was doing. "Great,"
Ham replied.
Goodman, meanwhile, strapped to the death chamber
gurney, expressed love for his family and a woman named Kami in a
final statement. Then he said, "That's it, warden. Thank you,
chaplain."
Goodman gulped 3 times, sputtered loudly about a half
dozen times and then fell into unconsciousness. He was pronounced
dead at 6:22 p.m., 9 minutes after the flow of lethal drugs began.
Goodman, 31, was the 2nd Texas death row inmate executed this year
and the 201st since capital punishment resumed in the state in 1982.
Texas has 5 more executions scheduled this month.
Eight years ago, Goodman was 23 years old, a
twice-convicted felon and footsore from a long walk without a
destination. He was just a day out of a San Antonio parole center on
July 2, 1991, and already overdue at a Houston halfway house when he
decided to steal Ham's car.
After being dropped off in Houston along
with a busload of other parolees, Goodman headed west on Interstate
10 and spent a restless night by the train tracks.
He walked throughout the next hot and rainy day
until he came upon Ham's Cadillac parked at a pharmacy in west
Houston. "I was going to get out of Houston and say, `I'm starting
over,' just get away from Houston," Goodman said recently. "Like a
dummy, I didn't think about reporting again."
When the 48-year-old Ham returned to her car and
stepped into the driver's seat, Goodman slammed his fist into her
neck, knocked her unconscious and pushed her limp body to the floor.
After driving a few miles, Goodman later told investigators, he "used
martial arts and broke the lady's neck."
His victim's body in the trunk and her credit
cards in his wallet, Goodman took off for a month before police
captured him in Colorado on Aug. 7, 1991, and solved what had been
until then a missing person's case. A Fort Bend County jury
convicted him and sentenced him to death on June 1, 1992.
While testifying, Goodman admitted knocking out
Ham, but denied breaking her neck or planning to kill her. "He broke
a woman's neck with his bare hands because he didn't feel like
walking," said Fred Felcman, an assistant district attorney who
helped prosecute Goodman. "And then he stuffs her into the trunk,
and drives away and visits friends, gives away the presents that she
had bought that day, uses her credit cards."
Goodman headed back toward San Antonio, leaving
behind a trail of nearly 60 credit card transactions for detectives
to follow. Deputies in Eagle County, Colo., arrested Goodman after a
32-mile chase that climaxed when he drove the Cadillac over a low
cliff.
Soon afterward, Goodman told police he killed Ham and dumped
her body in a field near Pearsall, south of San Antonio. "People
make mistakes, and I made a bad one," Goodman said recently. "I
don't blame nobody."
(Source: Houston Chronicle)
Spencer Goodman
Reuters News
January 18, 2000
Texas executed a 31-year-old man Tuesday night
for murdering the wife of rock group ZZ Top's manager. Spencer
Goodman was pronounced dead 9 minutes after he was given the lethal
injection, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry
Fitzgerald said.
In a final statement, Goodman told his family
that he loved them. His relatives were not present at the execution
though they had visited him in the preceding days. ZZ Top manager
Bill Ham and a brother of his late wife, Cecile, were among the
witnesses in attendance.
According to a summary of the case prepared by
the Texas Attorney General's office, Goodman knocked his victim out
and stole her red Cadillac while she was shopping in Houston on July
2, 1991.
Later he broke Ham's neck and left her body in a field.
Police tracked Goodman down through his use of Ham's credit cards
and he was eventually arrested after a high-speed chase in Colorado
on Aug. 7, 1991.
Goodman becomes the 2nd condemned prisoner to be
put to death this year in Texas and the 201st overall since the
state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982. Goodman also
becomes the 7th condemned prisoner to be put to death this year in
the USA and the 605th overall since America resumed executions on
Jan. 17, 1977.
Condemned Killer Faces Needle for Murder of ZZ
Top Manager's Wife
By C. Bryson Hill -
Abilene Reporter-News
Wednesday, January 19, 2000
HUNTSVILLE, Texas
(AP) — Spencer Corey Goodman heads to the death chamber Tuesday
night for snapping the neck of a Houston woman after knocking her
unconscious and stealing her car.
Twenty-three hours into his last
parole violation and footsore from a long walk with no destination
in 1991, Goodman saw in Cecile Ham's red Cadillac a clean break from
his past. Instead, the choice Goodman made more than eight years ago
led him to a sentence of death by lethal injection for killing Mrs.
Ham, 48, the wife of ZZ top manager Bill Ham.
Goodman, 31, would be the second Texas death row
inmate executed this year and the 201st since capital punishment
resumed in the state in 1982.
Tuesday's execution is also the second
of seven scheduled for January, the busiest month since May and June
1997, when eight inmates each were killed. His appeal and a request
to stay the execution are pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Goodman, then 23 and a twice-convicted felon, was
just a day out of a San Antonio parole center on July 2, 1991, and
already overdue at a Houston halfway house when he decided to steal
Mrs. Ham's car.
After being dropped off in Houston along with a
busload of other parolees, Goodman had headed west on Interstate 10
and spent a restless night by the train tracks. He walked all the
next day, which was hot and rainy, until he came upon Mrs. Ham's
Cadillac parked at a pharmacy in west Houston. “I was going to get
out of Houston and say, 'I'm starting over,' just get away from
Houston,” Goodman said recently. “Like a dummy, I didn't think about
reporting again.”
When she returned to her car and stepped into the
driver's seat, Goodman slammed his fist into her neck, knocked her
unconscious and pushed her limp body to the floor. After driving a
few miles, Goodman later told investigators, he “then used martial
arts and broke the lady's neck.”
His victim's body in the trunk and
her credit cards in his wallet, Goodman took off for a month before
police captured him in Colorado on Aug. 7, 1991, and solved what had
until then been Mrs. Ham's disappearance.
A Fort Bend County jury convicted him and
sentenced him to death on June 1, 1992. While testifying at his
trial, Goodman admitted knocking out Mrs. Ham, but denied breaking
her neck or planning to kill her. “He broke a woman's neck with his
bare hands because he didn't feel like walking,” said Fred Felcman,
an assistant district attorney who helped prosecute Goodman. “And
then he stuffs her into the trunk, and drives away and visits
friends, gives away the presents that she had bought that day, uses
her credit cards.”
Goodman headed back toward San Antonio, leaving
behind a trail of nearly 60 credit card transactions for detectives
to follow, one of which was captured on a surveillance videotape. It
was enough evidence to charge Goodman with unauthorized use of a
motor vehicle.
Acting on that warrant, deputies in Eagle County,
Colo., arrested Goodman after a 32-mile chase which climaxed when he
crashed Mrs. Ham's Cadillac after driving it over a low cliff. Soon
afterward, Goodman told police he killed Mrs. Ham and that he dumped
her body in a field near Pearsall, south of San Antonio. “People
make mistakes, and I made a bad one. I don't blame nobody,” Goodman
said recently.
Texas leads all states in executions since the
U.S. Supreme Court effectively reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Virginia is second with 72.
Spencer Goodman: Executed on January 18, 2000
Deathrow.at
Megan Goodman:
I used to think that anyone on death row had to
be a monster, including my own Uncle Spencer. I listened to what
people said about him and I looked at what he had done without ever
stopping to think that there might be more to the story...more that
I didn't know.
When I was 19, I was living on my own and
thinking a lot about my Uncle who was sitting on Death Row. His
crime was not something that was talked about in my family and
frankly he was never talked about either.
I decided that I wanted to know the whole story
about what he had done and who exactly he was. So, without telling
anyone in my family, I wrote him a letter telling him that I wanted
to talk to him. He wrote back and said that he would love to see me.
I prepared myself to go and visit a monster. I was sure that that
was what he was.
I remember when I went to see him I was shaking
as I walked down the row of cages full of people waiting to die. I
sat down and talked to my Uncle for the first time since I was in
third grade. We talked about his crime, about the rumours going
around the family and about things that we used to do together. By
the end of our two hour visit I had completely changed my opinion of
him.
I realized that he wasn't this monster that I needed to be
scared of but he was still my Uncle who loved me and I still loved
him. Over the next year and a half I visited with him on a regular
basis and we became very close. He was like my older brother more
than my Uncle. At the time of his execution I was closer to him than
anyone else in my life.
There is not a day that goes by that I don't miss
him. He taught me so much about myself and life. The most important
thing that he taught me was to search for my own truth, don't just
take one persons point of view as truth, because the truth is
probably somewhere in the middle.
My Uncle did a horrible thing in
his life but that doesn't mean that he was horrible. I believe that
it was Ghandi that said, "If we all took an eye for an eye then the
whole world would be blind."
My Uncle was the most loving person that I have
ever known and I was lucky that I got the chance to get to know the
man that I did.
