John Goodman, a Houston millionaire convicted of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide in 2012, began his retrial Tuesday with some seemingly bizarre events.
At the start of Tuesday’s trial, one juror reported she had been yelled at and heckled at the hotel she was staying in. The people seemed to know she was a juror in the trial, and told her she should be careful. The jurors have already been sequestered for this trial, so Judge Jeffery Colbath is unsure what to do to protect them.
Goodman is being retried on the charges after killing Scott Wilson in a car crash in 2010. He was originally sentenced to 16 years in prison, but juror misconduct led to the sentence being thrown out.
His first trial wasn’t free of bizarre events either—it included him attempting to adopt his then girlfriend to leave her his fortune.
Goodman is again pleading not guilty to the charges, alleging he wasn’t drunk (although prosecutors said his blood alcohol level was 0.177) but that his car malfunctioned, resulting in the crash.
Source: ABC13.com, Houston millionaire’s second trial underway, by Jessica Holloway, October 14, 2014