Goudeau Gets 438 Years For 2005 Rape
POSTED: 9:25 am MST December 14,
2007
UPDATED: 11:44 am MST December 14,
2007
PHOENIX -- Accused Baseline Killer Mark Goudeau has been sentenced to 438 years in prison for the sexual assaults of two sisters in 2005.Goudeau still faces trial for the slayings of eight women and a man in 2005-2006, and faces a possible death sentence if he is convicted of those charges. He's pleaded not guilty.The 43-year-old former construction worker was sentenced Friday for his Sept. 7 conviction on charges of raping one woman and sexually attacking her sister as they walked home from a park in south Phoenix. He was convicted on a total of 19 counts, including several sexual assault charges, kidnapping, sexual abuse and one drug charge.During the two-month trial, both sisters identified Goudeau as their attacker. DNA evidence also linked him to the rape.Goudeau has maintained his innocence, and told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Andrew Klein Friday that what happened to the two young women was horrible, "but I had nothing to do with it."Klein said before handing down the sentence that Goudeau must have two "diametrically opposed" personalities, one calm and respectful in court and the other sociopathic and brutal.Prosecutors had said earlier that Goudeau faced a maximum of 285 years in prison. But Deputy County Attorney Suzanne Cohen proved a prior violent record in court Friday that made him eligible for the higher sentences.All but one of his sentences will run consecutively, meaning he actually faces 428 years in prison.Goudeau's wife, Wendy Carr, said she felt the judge has been biased toward the prosecution and she again blamed prosecutors and jurors for convicting Goudeau based on "junk science.""This is just another freak show of a hearing where they convicted an innocent man," Carr said after the sentencing.Sisters Offered Tearful TestimonyDuring the two-month trial, the sisters testified that Goudeau rushed toward them with a pistol in hand as they left the park. They said he forced them into some bushes, told them to strip, then had sex with the younger sister while pointing the gun at the other sister's pregnant belly."I wanted to get up but I thought if I got up he would hurt my sister," the younger of the two sisters testified through a Spanish interpreter.It took a year to track Goudeau down, prosecutors said, because he took extra steps to conceal his identity.Goudeau warned the sisters not to look at his face during the assault, prosecutors said. They said he also used a condom and rubbed dirt on one of the sisters to get rid of his saliva.The sisters didn't identify Goudeau in photo lineups after the attack. One of them singled out another man as her assailant -- a fact that defense lawyers repeatedly cited in court as evidence that police have the wrong man.Goudeau's attorney argued during a hearing after the trial that the jury couldn't have come to a fair verdict after a short three hours of deliberations. The judge reportedly rejected the motion.One of the victims told the judge Friday that she still wakes up crying at times."I will hope for him to never get out," she said through an interpreter during the sentencing hearing. "He hurt me very much, as well as my sister. My daughter was in danger before she was even born."Jurors Explained VerdictJurors shared their views about the case afterwards. They compared Goudeau's face to a sketch the two sisters made after the attack. They debated whether the sisters truly recognized him in court.But when it came to the biological evidence that forensics experts said placed Goudeau at the crime scene, everyone quickly agreed."It left little doubt in everyone's mind," jury foreman Michael Voda of Phoenix said. "The DNA was really a lynchpin to the case. It was pretty much irrefutable."Prosecutors called four DNA experts to testify in the case, including Department of Public Safety specialist Lorraine Heath. Heath testified that it was 360 trillion times more likely that Goudeau's DNA was mixed with swabs taken from the sisters than any other unrelated man.Even in the face of what she thought was overwhelming evidence, juror Lauren Bohacik of Avondale said it struck her that Goudeau rarely showed any emotion."Cold and distant," Bohacik said of Goudeau. "There really was no emotion."He still faces another trial on 74 other criminal charges, including nine counts of murder, stemming from a crime spree Phoenix police have attributed to the Baseline Killer. The spree began in August 2005 and ended in June 2006, and included the assaults of the sisters.Police: Bloody Shoes Tied To 2 KillingsPolice reports issued in early October said a white Nike shoe taken from Goudeau's home during the police search in October 2006 had blood on it that connected it to two killings -- that of Chao "George" Chou in March of last year and that of Kristin Nicole Gibbons the same month.Gibbons' blood also was found on a ski mask in Goudeau's home, according to police reports.Reports also show two gold rings, found among various women's jewelry in a plastic baggy in one of Goudeau's shoes, belonged to two different victims.The first belonged to Tina Washington, found dead in an alley on Dec. 12, 2005. As they recovered her belongings, family members said Washington was missing a ring adorned with three birth stones and the phrase "we love mom" inscribed on the side.The ring was missing for almost a year when officers said they found it in Goudeau's shoe.Another ring found in the shoe belonged to Gibbons, her family members told police. After authorities recovered items from Gibbons' body, family members said a yellow gold ring with a single blue stone was missing. They recognized the ring when police showed it to them, and said it had been a gift from Gibbons' boyfriend.Detectives Point To Shell CasingsPolice said what links all nine murders in the Baseline Killer case are shell casings found at each of the shooting scenes from the same .380-caliber gun.Other DNA evidence released in the most recent reports shows that swabs taken from the breasts of victim Sophia Nunez contained male DNA that was scientifically matched to Goudeau.Nunez was found by her 8-year-old son partially clothed and shot to death in a bathtub in her west Phoenix home in April last year. She was the only victim part of the Baseline Killer case who was killed in her own home.Family members and friends of Nunez later told police Nunez had met Goudeau at the Arizona Mills Mall in Tempe, and that Goudeau had been to her house to fix a security screen door.From there, family members say, the two became friends, and police records show Goudeau and Nunez exchanged cell phone calls several times between March and October of 2005.ELSEWHERE ON KPHO.COM: South Korean scientists have cloned cats that glow red when exposed to ultraviolet rays, an achievement that could help develop cures for human genetic diseases, the Science and Technology Ministry said. CLICK HERE for details. MORE SLIDESHOWS: From the bizarre to the tragic to late-breaking news, visit the KPHO.com slideshow section and click away! CLICK HERE for images.
Copyright 2007 by KPHO.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.









