Goodman loses final appeal in fatal crash
The Florida Supreme Court denies claim that lower court erred.
More than three years after Wellington polo mogul John Goodman was convicted for a second time of DUI manslaughter in the 2010 crash that killed 23-year-old Scott Wilson, the Florida Supreme Court late Friday rejected his final pending appeal.
In a one-sentence order, the state’s high court said it wasn’t going to consider Goodman’s claims that the West Palm Beachbased 4th District Court of Appeal erred in October when it upheld his conviction and 16-year prison sentence.
“It is ordered that the petition for review is denied,” wrote the court, which has wide latitude to decide which cases it will consider.
The high court’s decision came weeks after it rejected Goodman’s claims that his conviction should be thrown out because of the way his blood was drawn after the alcohol-fueled crash in Wellington that claimed the engineering graduate’s life.
The founder of the International Polo Club claimed that the use of a small-diameter needle to draw his blood — along with lax procedures at a lab — falsely elevated his blood-alcohol level to 0.177 percent — more than twice the level at which Florida driv-
ers are by law considered impaired. Justices ruled that the procedures established by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are suffi- cient to protect against false readings.
With his direct appeals exhaust e d, like other inmates, Goodman could seek a new trial by claiming his top-flight legal team was incompetent. Or, in what attorneys describe as a move that is rarely successful, he could ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Florida Supreme Court’s refusal to consider his latest appeal.
“I’m not saying his hopes are completely squashed, but his chances are extremely unlikely,” said one attorney who asked to not be iden- tified.
The 54-year-old heir to a Texas heating and air condi- tioning fortune has repeat- edly shown that he doesn’t experts couldn’t examine it go down without a drawn-out and jurors couldn’t see it, fight. The case snared inter- he claimed. In rejecting his national headlines when he assertions, the appeals court adopted his then-girlfriend noted that Goodman was to protect his millions from convicted of the same charge Wilson’s parents, who filed in 2012 when the Bentley was a wrongful-death lawsuit available. It also rejected his against him. claims that his sentence was
The adoption was later too severe because the jury thrown out, and Goodman convicted him of failing to ultimately agreed to pay Wilrender aid to Wilson. liam and Lili Wilson $46 milGoodman’s first conviction lion to settle the lawsuit. was overturned due to jury
One of the main claims misconduct. In a self-pubin his latest appeal was that lished book, one of the jurors his defense was hampered described conducting his during his 2014 trial because, own drinking experiment prior to the second trial, state to determine if Goodman prosecutors destroyed the had been intoxicated on the Bentley he was driving in night of the crash. The secthe fatal crash. At both tri- ond trial produced the same als he claimed the $250,000 verdict and prison sentence. car spontaneously accelGoodman is being held erated, leaving him powin the Wakulla Correctional erless to stop it from slam- Institution south of Tallahasming into Wilson’s car, shov- see. His expected release ing it into a canal where the date is June 7, 2029, accordyoung man drowned. The ing to the Florida Departdestruction of the Bentley ment of Corrections. between his first and second trial meant his automotive