Dad of Starved Teen Faces Justice in 'House of Horrors' Case

"It's a case a judge said was more horrific than anything you could imagine in a horror movie. But sadly what we're talking about is not fiction, it is reality. A 14 year old girl was rescued from a house of horrors. She weighed just 35 pounds. We just got a big update in this case, the man who should have been the girl's protector. Her own father just pleaded guilty to being the architect of a nightmare." "For years I lived in a nightmare, I've led to this isolation." That is the voice of the teen who survived that nightmare. Talk about what Walter Goodman is admitting to and what it means for the others, already in prison for their wool in this story. We're on the case presented by Lawncrime. I'm Chris Stewart. We have covered just too many stories lately that have been dubbed house of horrors. And the scary part is, for each story that we cover, I worry about just how many other cases are out there that are behind closed doors that have yet to be discovered and hopefully in this case. And if there's any good news that can come of it and it's hard to find when I tell you the details, it's that the development that we're following today is hopefully a step in the healing process for the 14 year old girl who went through nothing short of a nightmare for a long time. "It's not just your inaction for days, weeks, months, years, it's you affirmatively doing things to add to this house of horrors and make no mistake about it. This is beyond what somebody could probably think of in some sort of horror movie." Those were just some of the words that the judge had for one of the other defendants in this case who pleaded guilty and it will be interesting to see what the judge will have to say to Walter Goodman. He is the father of the victim in this case and he just pleaded guilty for his role in what happened at his home near Appleton, Wisconsin. Now I'll talk a little bit about what might be in store for him next in just a moment. Now he's not the only one who is accused of being beyond horrific to this young girl, his own daughter. Let me remind you the details of this story and it begins all the way back in 2020 when the girl moved in with Walter Goodman, her biological dad. The victim was just nine years old at the time and she has identified only as MJG in court documents. According to the complaint, the girl lived in her bedroom inside of this trailer. Investigators say that her door was locked from the outside so she couldn't get out. Police say that her dad had a camera so he could watch her inside. He would only let this young girl get out to use the bathroom. Her dad said that he did that because she had a history of self-harm and she was autistic. Goodman made a couple other interesting statements to police when they arrived, which we'll talk about here in a second. Now you need to understand the condition this girl was in when she was rescued and it's not easy to explain. This girl weighed at 14 years old, just 35 pounds. Obviously at that age, a child should be well over 100 pounds. She was diagnosed at the hospital with severe malnutrition that caused multiple organs to fail. Her liver, her pancreas, her heart, they were all affected. Her body temperature when she was rescued was reported to be 88.3 degrees. That is hypothermic. She had osteoporosis. Like an elderly person at 14 years old. Doctors also say she had pressure sores from lying on the floor. According to the criminal complaint, she was so weak that she couldn't even turn on the faucet or shower and she had to use the wall for support just to walk from her bed to the bathroom. A prosecutor said that the girl was, quote, "very, very close to death." Her blood sugar also was 24, which is life threateningly low. The police came across this nightmare situation because the girl's dad, Walter Goodman, called 911 and the criminal complaint lays out what he allegedly said on the phone to the dispatcher. It is lengthy, so I can't read all of it, but I want to show you how it starts. Walter says, quote, "I have a 14-year-old daughter that she don't barely eat, so she looks really skinny and she is autistic, so if she don't want to eat, she don't eat. So the last four days, four or five days, she's been sick, thrown up, and I've been giving her the liquid IVs and all that kind of stuff. Today, she's real lethargic and like was throwing her arm up, laying on her bed, throwing her arm up, and now she's just like laying there, like she's comatose, but she's her eyes are open and she's moaning and she's throwing her arms around. He also says, "Tell them that. I'll have her sitting on my lap in the living room. My porch is broke, so I'll grab her and bring her out." Now, when you hear that, Walter's acting like he has no idea how his daughter got to this point, but clearly when someone's 35 pounds, this isn't an issue that happens overnight. The 911 dispatcher also says, "Do you think she's breathing normally?" And Walter says, "No, she's breathing real on and off." And the dispatcher says, "What do you mean she's breathing on and off? Does she stop breathing?" Walter says, "No." Her stomach goes down and then goes rapid and then it kind of goes, "You know what I mean." Then the dispatcher says, "Is she bleeding or vomiting any blood?" And Walter says, "No." And the dispatcher asks, "Do you know if she has any pain?" And he says, "I don't know." She won't even talk. She's just laying there with her eyes open, all creepy. Walter also says that the girl is grinding her teeth and stiffening up in his arms. Police arrived and they interviewed Walter Goodman. When he was asked how long his daughter had been in this condition, he allegedly said, "Probably like the last hour." I thought, well, you know, maybe that's what it was. It's her sugar low. So I gave her a little bit of wild cherry Pepsi and she swallowed it down. Walter said he gave the girl a cherry Pepsi because her biological mom was diabetic and he thought that might help. Walter told police that he hadn't taken the girl to a doctor for nearly five years. He said six days before he called 911, the girl said her stomach hurt. Walter said she felt better after three days and he brought her a bucket so she could puke. He also said that the girl ate an entire frozen pizza for lunch and then hours later she was throwing up. She also said the girl didn't sleep so she burned up all her energy, which is why she weighed so little in his opinion for the criminal complaint. Now, clearly this kind of situation. Again, this isn't something that's just recent in the last couple of days. Certainly not the last hour like Walter is alleged to have said. Police arrested Goodman. They also arrested his wife who's the stepmom of the victim. Her name is Melissa Goodman and they also arrested Walter's adult daughter her name is Savannah LaFever and then her partner Kayla Stemler. Now, according to law enforcement, each member of the family tried to pass off the girl's condition and the responsibility for it, but law enforcement also has text messages and it's just it makes this story even worse if that's even possible. The girl's stepmom Melissa Goodman referred to the victim as dummy or stupid. Police found a text that she sent her 15 year old son who also lived in the home. She texted things like quote, okay, well, I figured it'd be easier with dummy sleeping still. And can you please make sure the door is locked and so is stupid, please. And okay, but make sure dummy's door is locked and make sure the front door is to when you key her in but don't forget to check dummy's door. Melissa Goodman was the first defendant to get prison time in this case last month. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by 10 years of extended supervision and the victim provided an audio recording played in court and she called Goodman a monster. This is per WB a Y television. You really ruined my childhood and it hurts that you did. You isolated me from my families. The one the only ones who actually cared, you had the choice to help when I needed it, but instead you joined in on the abuse and neglect. At that hearing, the victim also talked about how her dad would physically be her. And Melissa just watched and did nothing. Here's what Melissa said. I know there's nothing I can say or do to fix it, but if I could go back and change things I would. Another defendant headed to prison is Kayla Stemler. She was dating Savannah LaFever who was the victim's step sister and authority say that Stemler witnessed the abuse, but she did nothing. And this was what the judge told her in August at her sentencing. It's not just your inaction for days, weeks, months, years. It's you affirmatively doing things to add to this house of horrors and make no mistake about it. This is this is beyond what somebody could probably think of in some sort of horror movie. Stemler was sentenced to eight years in prison. She was convicted on three counts, chronic neglect of a child, consequences, great bodily harm, chronic neglect of a child, consequence is emotional damage and false imprisonment. Then you have Savannah LaFever, the victim's step sister and Kayla Stemler's partner and she has pleaded guilty as well. Court records reveal that LaFever pleaded no contests to three counts, chronic child neglect causing great bodily harm, chronic child neglect causing emotional damage and false imprisonment. and she is set to be sentenced on December 3rd. Well, let's talk about Walter Goodman, the father. Court records show that he has pleaded guilty in this case to charges of chronic neglect of a child, consequence great bodily harm, chronic neglect of a child, consequences emotional damage and false imprisonment. So similar to other defendants in this case, but the question will be, what will his sentence be? Now, this also was a big development, not just in bringing his case to a close, but just two months ago. Walter Goodman was trying to dispute that he was mentally competent to stand trial and it appears an effort to reverse that failed. Goodman is slated be sentenced February 2nd. Join us now to talk more about this. Jack Rice, criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor, former CIA officer, always great to have you here on law and crime. What do you make of Walter Goodman, taking a plea deal in this case? - God, it's a very, very sad case. But when we realized that there were three other people in the home, three other adults in the home, all three of whom have pleaded guilty to these similar charges, two of whom have already been sentenced. The fact that a big piece of that was likely that they would have been required to testify against him. It's not surprising to me that finally, as maybe the ringleader of this, we don't really know, that he would have done the same because the open exposure could be far, far worse if he ends up in trial. - Yeah, and I'll stand corrected on myself. I said, "Plead deal, he's pleading no contests to these charges." What does that mean for what could happen at sentencing, knowing that it doesn't appear like there was a deal in place? - Right, right. With no more contender, with essentially, you're not arguing the charges. You essentially are saying that if a reasonable jury saw this, a reasonable jury would find him guilty. There's no difference in terms of those issues. Although I would argue, if you're trying to mitigate with the judge, you're trying to convince the judge to do something less, that kind of a plea is actually not what I would go for. And the reason is because what a judge really wants to hear, if he's gonna give you some leniency, is I really screwed up. I really did this. I really got it rather than I backed into a plea. And I've seen that happen many times. And if you have somebody who wants to try that, they actually have that additional risk because the judge's response could very well be, "You know what? "I don't know if this person got it or not. "We just got them." And that's not the same thing. - When you look at the other sentences that have been handed down thus far, in this case, you have Melissa Goodman, whose Walter's wife, she's the stepmom of the victim, 15 years in prison, Savannah LaFever, who is Melissa Goodman's daughter, so that would be the stepdaughter of Walter. She's gonna be sentenced to December 3rd, and then Kayla Stemler. She was sentenced to eight years in prison, and then she is the partner, a lot of different dynamics are to the family tree. She is the partner of Savannah LaFever. But nonetheless, you have to this point, 15 years in prison, eight years in prison. And Walter Goodman may have been the person who they really wanted to get the most, as far as prosecutors are concerned, and who knows who would have testified against him at trial. When you see those sentences, what does that tell you about what could happen when he sentenced? - These are brutal sentences. I mean, when you look at cases like these, and there's not a death, and you get somebody at that 15-year mark, it tells you how seriously the prosecutors were going after this quartet, these four people, and how seriously the judge has decided to sentence them. It tells you something. It also tells you sort of the order in which some of these are prosecuted. Because frequently what you're doing is you think of this like, Chris, like if you're going after the mob. What you find oftentimes is somebody at the lower level, which you then pressure to go after somebody up that proverbial chain. And so the fact that they went after three other people in the home, and they're leaving him for last, the potential is he's the one who's gonna hit the hardest. He's the one they're gonna go after the most, because they're all thinking about this meaning those three, but the prosecutors themselves saying, if we have three who have already pled, we're gonna use those three to go after the fourth, and if the fourth hasn't been willing to do so, we either think he's the most serious, or he's the one who doesn't care. He's the one who we will go after the most seriously, because he is not pleading guilty. He could be looking at an excess of that 15 years. Although there is that mitigating factor that he was the one, he was the one who picked up the phone and called 911 saying, we have an emergency here. The other three did not do that. - And that's interesting, because I think, if you were to talk about mitigating factors and you write them down on paper, that could be one of them is like, hey, he's the one who called 911. Potentially the other part of it is like, this was a girl he claimed had special needs, and this is a guy who, and I'm not saying that this argument would go anywhere, but like, you know, something to be said of, like this is a guy who found himself in a situation, he didn't know what to do, and then suddenly things spiral. On the other hand, this girl at 14 years old, weighed 35 pounds, you know, and you have that at the top. And we haven't seen this girl. We don't know, you know, what the appearance, what her appearance looks like. You have to imagine a lifetime of trauma because what she went through in that house, like as a defense attorney though, and the sentencing hearing comes, how do you try to make someone like Walter Goodman, who is facing these horrific accusations, he's pleaded guilty, how do you try to put him in a light? So he doesn't get what could be a really, really long sentence. - Yeah, let's start with this, Chris. There are some facts that are undeniable. There are some facts that you don't get to back away from, or deny, or act like you weren't aware. Let's start with this. These police officers went into this home, and they thought they were looking at a six to eight year old, not a 14 year old. The fact that we have somebody who was 35 pounds, that makes this an undeniable question. And so the notion of, I didn't know, I was overwhelmed, I was confused, she's special needs, I'm not sure that does not work. Unless you have something that goes beyond just confusion, or loss, or misunderstanding. If we're talking about a level of competency, for, and I'm talking about Goodman himself, him, about whether or not he was special needs himself, and those questions were actually sitting out there. All of those issues matter, because at least it may explain why he didn't understand in the way that he should have. But the problem you have is this is somebody who looked like they were six. So the answer is you have to lean into them. If you are in a space like this, and this is totally counterintuitive, is that if you're going to trial, yes, I get the logic of arguing all of those various points because you have no choice. But if you're going to plead guilty to something, whether it's essentially Nolo Contendray, or whether or not you're embracing it and saying, it was me, I did it, no excuse, no misunderstanding. You have to lean into these and say, this is horrifying and I did this. And then you have to come up with reasons why that makes sense. And so he's not going to be able to back away from these, and nor should he back away from these. And I say this as a criminal defense attorney who's been doing this for 30 years, and as a former prosecutor who's watched this happen for 30 years, you realize that he has to be able to lean in. One piece that is confusing to me is this, is that originally they had found him competent. There was a, in Minnesota anyway, they call it a rule 20, but it's a competency here. And you say, I get that I, what I'm charged with, I get the difference between right and wrong. I get that I have to have the ability to help in my defense. I get that. He actually was talking about appealing that question. Sometimes, sometimes the reason for a, a competency hearing is not to just determine whether or not they understand the level of competency, right? Because you can also be mentally ill. You can also have a schizophrenic disorder. You can also be bipolar. You can also have ADHD. You can have a lot of different things that don't rise to the level of being incompetent. However, they can impact how you see things. And you should realize, and I think this is one of those nuanced pieces, is that if you have somebody who is completely competent without mental illness, has education, has sophistication. Imagine a lawyer, imagine a doctor, imagine a police officer, imagine a judge. Those are all competent people, we hope. And that may not be the standard with which Mr. Goodman sees the world. And so you have to be able to distinguish between those two, which again is nuanced. And it's one of the reasons doing this kind of work, you need to be able to look at it very big picture. However, and I come back to this other piece, we have a 14 year old who look like they were six. And there was 35 pounds. And that is something that you can't, nor should you be able to walk away from. - No, and I also think of a sentencing hearing, and I've probably asked you this question before, because when you have those type of facts that you're going up against, and then you've also seen the other sentences of people who are in the house, is there really any? anything you can do, I mean, if you're representing Walter Goodman, I mean a judge who, you know, and if it's the same judge as it was in the other cases, you know, he said what was in that house was something you couldn't make up in a horror movie, you know, and then, you know, here you are, you know, now going up against, you know, you're, or representing a client that may have been the architect of it all, you know, and the person who's supposed to be this girl's protector as her dad and he failed. Is there really anything that can be said during that hearing that changes the words that the judge already has prepared that he's going to say at the end of the hearing when he announces his sentence? Yeah, that's the $10,000 question, isn't it? Is there anything? Because you know that these are words that this judge has already prepared. You know that this is something that this judge has already thought about because they've already sentenced two of those other three people, they know what that means, and the idea of treating this person differently, then you've already treated to and likely the third, is there anything different? And I think that the only way to create a difference is to create as much space, maybe build a wall of some kind and figure out what that is, and there's not enough information here to give us that, not really, but to create as much space between yourself, meaning as a defendant, and the other three in the room and say, "Why am I different?" The problem is, is all of the evidence that we have seen, all of the information that's been made available to the public seems to take us the other direction, that in fact, he is not just like them. He might be the one who was running the room, and if you're the one who's running that room of horrors to use your language, if you're the one running that room of horrors, the likelihood is you may have nothing. However, I keep coming back to that for this reason, because the difference becomes, why don't you go to trial then? Why is it that he pledged? Why is it that he admitted whether or not he's acknowledging that he would be found guilty or not? He did plead, and that does say something, and that does say something about, "Look, I've not only saved the people of Wisconsin a whole lot of money. I've actually protected the family at least in the sense of saying they don't have to go through a trial again, and there may be something there." That's very small, comparatively speaking, but it is something to say, "Don't shoot me out of the cannon." I wonder, too, just generally speaking, because we have seen a lot of these cases where you have kids who are behind closed doors, which is a cliche, but in this case, she was not going to a doctor because a doctor would have intervened when she became the weight that she was. She wasn't going to school because a teacher would have reported that something was going on in the house. All mandatory reporters. This was a girl kept in a room in a trailer in this county, in Wisconsin. As someone who's a former prosecutor and I know you're in Minnesota, but as far as from state to state, what is the requirement of kids? People will homeschool their children and all of this, but it just seems like there's just too many cases where it is found out far too late. Unfortunately, this girl survived, though she'll have, I'm sure, issues for a long time, if not the rest of her life. What can be done? It's not these cases where the door opens, and suddenly, oh my gosh, why weren't we able to get to this girl sooner? When you think about a case like this, this is based upon her weight and her development at this point. This tells you that this is not going to be, and in fact, he was found guilty of multiple counts, not just physical but mental, the mental piece of this too. The thing is, is that the physical piece of this is far more than just what you see. This will impact her development as well. She has special needs, according to what they're saying, and in fact, that's true. That may have either been caused or exacerbated by essentially her starvation, by essentially her abuse, and she will carry this for the rest of her life. Here's the push, the push pull, Chris, is that there are people in this country who want to raise their own children and educate them at home. What we have already determined is that people have the right to do that, and at the same time, there are certain rights that parents have and privacy rights that those parents possess that allow them to do a lot of things and to essentially keep the government away at bay. The problem that we're seeing is that that's the push. There's the pull, though, when you see this child. How many cases have you and I covered together where what we find is you dig up the body in the backyard. You find the child that's dead in the room, or they're on the edge of death, and then they pass. I mean, that's the pull. And you have to ask yourself this question to say, do we collectively have an obligation? And that collective obligation is to make that our children are safe, and I mean that collectively, that we should have the right to have child protective services if you're teaching your children at home. If your children aren't going to get medical attention, if your children are receiving public benefits, if your children aren't receiving public benefits, is there a right? Should there be a right and an obligation of the state and the federal government to step in and make sure that all of our children are being protected or is the sacrosanct right of individuals, parents, to raise their children as they see fit, override all of that. We've seen in cases that have gone all the way up to the Supreme Court where we made it people claiming that their children shouldn't have certain medical care because they have a religious affiliation or a belief. And in fact, what the courts have said is that no, no, no, you may think something, but we will charge you with murder. We will charge you with child endangerment. We'll charge you with a whole bunch of things if we can, because the issue of making sure that children are safe actually rises above the question of my philosophical view of how the world should work, but where is the line? And if there's nothing that says, come into my house, take a look around, how far should the government go to come into my house and take a look around? Yeah, I mean, it's a debate that needs to be had, frankly, because we've just had so many stories like this recently. I mean, I can think of like Ohio, California, talking about this one out of Wisconsin, Florida. There was a case I covered a little while ago. I mean, it just seems like it is an issue and it continues to come up and hopefully, you know, more is done about it. We'll see what happens to Walter Goodman when he is sentenced. And that is expected in the next couple of months. Jack Rice, always great to have you on Longcrime. Thanks for talking about this case with us. We appreciate it. Thank you, Chris. That will do it for on the case presented by Longcrime. I'm Chris Stewart. See you next time.