A man in Missouri has been found guilty of the murder of four individuals in a motel room almost a decade after the tragic event took place. Scott Goodwin-Bey, aged 57, was convicted by a jury in Springfield on Thursday on four counts each of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. The sentencing for the case is scheduled for November 21. Given that the death penalty was not sought by prosecutors, the maximum penalty for first-degree murder in Missouri is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
The victims, Trevor Fantroy (43), Christopher Freeman (24), Lewis Green (44), and Danielle Keyes (29), lost their lives on November 15, 2014, at the Economy Inn in Springfield. Legal documents revealed that Goodwin-Bey allegedly shot the victims because he suspected they had informed the police about his drug usage.
Back in 2016, a judge in Missouri criticized the ballistics evidence presented in Goodwin-Bey’s case, claiming that the method of analyzing bullet striations to match them to a specific firearm was entirely subjective. Consequently, the charges against Goodwin-Bey were dropped, only to be reinstated in 2018 by the prosecutors.
Efforts to reach Goodwin-Bey’s attorney for comment, made by The Associated Press via a phone call, were unsuccessful at the time of reporting.
