Citations:
Goff v. State,931 SW2d 537 (Tex. 1996).
In re Goff,250 F3d 273 (5th Cir 2001).

Internet Sources:

Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (David Goff)

Texas Attorney General

Thursday, April 19, 2001 - MEDIA ADVISORY - David Lee Goff Scheduled To Be Executed

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General John Cornyn offers the following information on David Lee Goff who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25th. On Nov. 21, 1991, David Lee Goff was convicted of the Sept. 1, 1990, murder of Michael McGuire, that took place in Ft. Worth. A summary of the evidence presented at trial follows.

FACTS OF THE CRIME

Goff's accomplice, Craig Ford, testified that in early September 1990, he was waiting in the apartment of Mary Johnson for a ride to his mother's house. Goff, who was 21 years old and lived with Johnson, entered and said a ride had arrived. Ford went outside where there was a dark blue van and a driver he had never met, Michael McGuire. Goff sat in the front passenger seat, and Ford sat in the rear of the van on an old mattress. On the way to Ford's mother's house, Goff had McGuire stop under an overpass so that he could use the restroom. When Goff reentered the van, he pulled a small chrome gun and placed it to McGuire's head. Goff grabbed McGuire out of his seat and threw him down on the mattress in the back of the van handcuffing his hands behind his back.

Goff instructed Ford to drive to a dark street. Ford exited the freeway onto Wilbarger. As he turned onto Wilbarger, he heard a single gunshot from the rear of the van. Goff had Ford stop along a wooded section of the road and help him remove the body through the rear of the van. As Goff dragged McGuire's body into the woods, Ford began to run down the road back towards the freeway. Goff got back into the van and caught up with Ford, ordering him back into the van at gunpoint. They drove to a place near the Johnson apartment where they abandoned the van after Goff attempted to wipe off his fingerprints. Johnson's daughter, Angela, saw Goff enter the apartment covered in blood. Ford testified that Goff changed at the apartment and gave his clothes to Angela to dispose of them. A friend of the Johnson family testified that Goff tried to get him to burn the van. A few days after the murder, McGuire's decomposing body was found face down by children playing in the woods. Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Nizam Peerwani, testified that in addition to numerous insect bites, McGuire's body showed injuries from a single gunshot wound to the left temple, injuries from being tightly gagged and ligature marks around the neck consistent with the rope found tied to the gag. Peerwani believed that McGuire was still alive when the rope and gag marks were made. Peerwani determined the cause of death as the gunshot wound and estimated that McGuire was dead within five to 10 minutes of being shot.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Dec. 13, 1990 - Goff was indicted in Tarrant County for capital murder.

Nov. 21, 1991 - The jury found him guilty of capital murder.

Nov. 25, 1991 - After a separate hearing on punishment, the jury answered affirmatively the two special punishment phase issues submitted pursuant to the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. Based on the jury's answers, the trial court sentenced Goff to death by lethal injection.

May 22, 1996 - The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction on direct appeal.

Oct. 16, 1996 - The Court of Criminal Appeals denied Goff's motion for rehearing.

April 14, 1997 - The United States Supreme Court denied Goff's petition for writ of certiorari.

Dec. 31, 1997 - Goff filed an application for writ of habeas corpus in the 371st District Court of Tarrant County. Based on the findings and conclusions of the district court, and on its own review of the record, the Court of Criminal Appeals denied relief.

Sept. 4, 1998 - Goff filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Jan. 19, 1999 - The district court entered a final judgment denying Goff's petition. Goff appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Sept. 8, 2000 - The Court of Appeals denied Goff a certificate of appealability. No petition for writ of certiorari was filed in the United States Supreme Court.

PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

In November 1984, Goff, then a juvenile, was convicted of two counts of attempted capital murder and sentenced to 15 years confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections. The details of these offenses are as follows:

On Aug. 15, 1984, Goff and two other youths got a ride from Vaughn Heeren. When Heeren stopped his car to let them out, Goff pointed a .22 caliber Derringer at him. The youths stole his wallet containing $160 and drove his truck to an industrial park in Grand Prairie. Goff instructed Heeren to strip and run. Heeren heard a shot as he ran, and thinking that the shot did not sound real, he turned around, ran back towards the truck and was shot in the chest. The youths swerved at him and then drove off. Heeren obtained treatment for a collapsed lung and survived. At the time of trial, Heeren continued to suffer from nightmares about the attack.

On Aug. 16, 1984, Goff and two other youths violently assaulted Jill Bogan-Tucker in the parking lot of the hotel where she worked. Goff instructed her at gun point to open her car door and get in and then began cussing at her and slapping her. Tucker fought her way out of the car and ran towards the hotel. Goff shot her in the back as she ran, caught up with her and shot her again under her chin. Tucker managed to run into the hotel while the three assailants fled on foot. At the time of trial, she continued to suffer from extreme headaches and a weak back, and she took medication for pain.Witnesses at trial testified about these two offenses. Goff admitted he was the trigger man in both offenses.

Texas Execution Information Center by David Carson.

In September 1990, Michael N. McGuire, 34, was kidnapped from the drug rehabilitation center in Fort Worth where he worked. He was shot after being handcuffed and drugged. His decomposing body was found a few days later by children playing in the woods. Police arrested Goff, then 21, and Craig Edward Ford, 19. Prosecutors charged both of them with capital murder. After the suspects underwent polygraph tests, prosecutors decided to offer immunity to Ford in exchange for his testimony against Goff.

Craig Ford testified that on the night of the murder, he was waiting for a ride to his mother's house in the apartment shared by David Goff and Mary Johnson. Goff entered the apartment and told Ford his ride was there. Ford said he and Goff got into a van driven by McGuire, whom he had never met. On the way to Ford's mother's house, Goff made McGuire stop the van, put a small gun to his head, threw him into the back of the van, and handcuffed him. Goff instructed Ford to drive to a dark street. Ford said he heard a single gunshot from the rear of the van. He helped Goff remove the body from the rear of the van, than ran back towards the freeway while Goff dragged McGuire's body into the woods. Goff got back to the van, caught up with Ford, and ordered him back into the van at gunpoint. Ford said they drove back and abandoned the van near the apartment. Goff changed clothes in the apartment and asked Mary Johnson's daughter, Angela, to dispose of them.

Angela Johnson testified seeing Goff enter the apartment, covered in blood. A friend of the Johnson family testified that Goff tried to get him to burn the van.

In 1984, Goff, then 15, was convicted of two counts of attempted capital murder with a deadly weapon and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He served less than five years of this sentence before being paroled in 1989. (At the time, early release was common in Texas due to strict prison population caps imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.) Goff said that he had nothing to do with McGuire's murder and that he was nowhere near the crime scene. He said that he and Ford knew each other, but were not friends.

On appeal, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Goff's conviction. All of Goff's other state and federal appeals were denied. The U.S. Supreme Court denied two appeals on the afternoon of his execution. At his execution, Goff gave a prayer of praise and thanks to God. After the lethal drugs began flowing, he remarked, "It tastes like rubber." He was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m.

Craig Ford was convicted of cocaine possession in 1992 and sentenced to ten years in prison. He was paroled in 1996.

ProDeathPenalty.Com

In 1984, David Goff was sentenced to 15 years in prison for two counts of attempted capital murder with a deadly weapon. He served less than 5 years due to the mandatory release law which awarded him a day and a half of "good time" for every day he served and was paroled in July of 1989. Just over one year later, on September 1, 1990, he murdered Michael N. McGuire, 34, during an attempted robbery. Michael was kidnapped, handcuffed, drugged and shot to death.

The Lamp of Hope (Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

April 25 - TEXAS - A man convicted of killing a drug counselor in 1990 while on parole for the robbery and attempted murder of 2 other people was executed by injection Wednesday. David Lee Goff, 32, insisted he was innocent of the death of Michael McGuire, 34. "I want to give all the praise to God and glory and thank Him for all that He done for me," Goff said. "With this, let all debts be paid that I owed real or imagined. The slate is wiped clean, all marks erased. Other than that there is no justice. That's not justice." The U.S. Supreme Court denied 2 appeals by Goff's attorneys Wednesday afternoon.

Goff said he wasn't present when McGuire, who worked and lived at the Star House rehabilitation center in Fort Worth, was abducted and fatally shot Sept. 1, 1990. McGuire's decomposing body was found by some children several days later in a wooded area about 6 miles away. Goff was on parole after serving less than 5 years of a 15-year term for two counts of attempted capital murder. Those crimes occurred on consecutive days in August 1984 when he was 15. Prosecutors had him certified to be tried as an adult. Those victims, who had been shot, survived and testified against him at the punishment phase of his trial for McGuire's murder. "He was a poster child with his criminal history," said Richard Alpert, an assistant district attorney who prosecuted Goff. "He was just a scary individual."

Another man, Craig Ford, was arrested and charged with capital murder in the McGuire slaying but charges were dropped and Ford testified against Goff. Alpert said while Ford was present when McGuire was killed, he did not participate in the slaying. Goff had complained about what he said was the incompetence of his court-appointed lawyers, who argued unsuccessfully to jurors there was little evidence and no motive to connect their client to the crime.

Goff becomes the 7th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 246th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Goff becomes the 26th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA, and the 709th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Texas Reporter News

Thursday, April 26, 2001 - Convicted killer of Tarrant County drug rehab counselor executed (By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press Writer)

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Condemned killer David Lee Goff was executed Wednesday evening for an abduction and fatal shooting committed in Fort Worth 11 years ago while he was on parole for robbing and trying to kill two other people. Goff, 32, insisted he was innocent of the death of Michael McGuire, 34, a counselor from a drug and alcohol abuse rehabilitation center. Goff uttered a brief prayer before the lethal drugs began taking effect. “I want to give all the praise to God and glory and thank him for all that hedone for me,” he said. “With this, let all debts be paid that I owed — real or imagined. The slate is wiped clean, all marks erased. Other than that there is no justice. That's not justice.”

Goff had nodded and smiled as his mother and five friends walked into the death house and watched through a window a few feet away. Just before the drugs began taking effect, Goff asked the chaplain standing nearby to close his eyes if they remained open. “Take them down before they take my body,” he said. Just before a grimace and a groan, Goff said he was tasting something “like rubber.” Seven minutes later at 6:20 p.m. CDT he was pronounced dead. His eyes were closed but his mouth remained open as the chaplain covered him with a sheet. There were no witnesses for McGuire.

Goff's execution was the seventh this year in Texas, where a record 40 lethal injections were carried out last year. At least seven other inmates have execution dates, including two next month. The U.S. Supreme Court denied two 11th hour appeals by Goff's attorneys Wednesday afternoon.

Goff said he wasn't even present when McGuire, who worked and lived at the Star House rehabilitation center in Fort Worth, was abducted and fatally shot Sept. 1, 1990. McGuire's decomposing body was found by some children several days later in a wooded area about six miles away. Goff was 21 at the time and on parole after serving less than five years of a 15-year term for two counts of attempted capital murder. Those crimes, both in Arlington, occurred on consecutive days in August 1984 when he was 15. Prosecutors had him certified to be tried as an adult. Like the McGuire slaying, each of the Arlington victims was shot, one in the chest and the other in the back and then under the chin. Unlike McGuire, they survived and testified against him at the punishment phase of his trial for McGuire's murder.

“He was a poster child with his criminal history,” recalled Richard Alpert, an assistant district attorney who prosecuted Goff. “He was just a scary individual. I remember victims of his prior cases testifying. “There was no need, no reason, why he should have tried to take the lives of the two people... But he did and they were very lucky they lived. That, to me, made him especially vicious.” McGuire was shot in the left temple. A pathologist testified he had been tightly gagged and had ligature marks around his neck. A second man, Craig Ford, was arrested and charged with capital murder in the slaying but charges were dropped and Ford testified against Goff. Alpert said while Ford was present when McGuire was killed, he did not participate in the slaying.

In a letter to The Associated Press, Goff complained from death row about what he said was the incompetence of his court-appointed lawyers, who argued unsuccessfully to jurors there was little evidence and no motive to connect their client to the crime. “If I, like many other capital sentenced prisoners, are (sic) to be held accountable for the incompetence and simple indifference of court-appointed counsel, where is the justice in that?” Goff wrote. Next on the execution schedule is Allen Bridgers, 35, set to die May 16 for the 1997 slaying of a Smith County woman.

Amarillo Globe-News

Wednesday, April 25, 2001 - Convicted killer heads to death chamber

HUNTSVILLE (AP) - With two attempted capital murder convictions on his record, there was little question about Tarrant County prosecutors seeking the death penalty when David Lee Goff went to trial for abducting and killing a counselor from a drug and alcohol abuse rehabilitation center.

"He was a poster child with his criminal history," recalled Richard Alpert, an assistant district attorney who prosecuted Goff. "He was just a scary individual. I remember victims of his prior cases testifying. "There was no need, no reason, why he should have tried to take the lives of the two people... But he did and they were very lucky they lived. That, to me, made him especially vicious." Goff, 32, was set for lethal injection this evening for the 1990 shooting death of Michael McGuire, 34. His lawyers were seeking federal court relief to halt the execution, which would be the seventh this year in Texas, where last year a record 40 executions were carried out.