NEWS RELEASE
OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
A. COURTNEY COX
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

Nine Executive Drive, Fairview Heights, Illinois 62208, Telephone (618) 628-3700

CAHOKIA MAN SENTENCED FOR ROLE IN SERIES OF VIOLENT CRIMES

According to information contained in the Stipulation of Facts filed in this case, GOODEN and his co-defendant, BARRY CHESTER WILLIAMS, previously pled guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Kidnaping; and Possession of a Firearm in Furtherance of a Crime of Violence. GOODEN admitted his role in a series of crimes over a six-day period in late October, 2006, beginning with kidnaping a man from a Cahokia laundromat using a sawed-off shotgun. GOODEN admitted to forcing the man to spend four days in the trunk of the man’s car while GOODEN used the car to travel between the Metro-East area and St. Louis, Missouri, making withdrawals from the man’s bank accounts using the man’s ATM card and, on one occasion, forcing the man, at gunpoint, to withdraw $2,000.00 from a drive-through bank teller. GOODEN admitted to robbing two truckers, at gunpoint, outside a Popeye’s restaurant in St. Louis, Missouri. GOODEN also admitted his role in using the sawed-off shotgun to force a young woman from the parking lot of a White Castle restaurant in Berkeley, Missouri to a remote parking lot in Bel-Ridge, Missouri, where the co-defendant instructed the woman to get in the back seat and remove her clothes. A struggle then ensued during which the sawed-off shotgun discharged into the dashboard of the woman’s vehicle. Police heard the blast and responded. The co-defendant fled on foot and was captured some days later by the United States Marshal Service in Oklahoma. GOODEN fled by vehicle and was apprehended by Bel-Ridge, Missouri and Sauget, Illinois police officers after a high speed chase that ended in a crash in Sauget, Illinois.