A former 911 administrator for Longview police is scheduled to plead guilty next year in the murder of his wife, county records show.
Assistant District Attorney Stacey Brownlee stressed that Harry Goodan still could opt for a full trial before his plea date of Jan. 10. Goodan, 41, is accused in the December 2010 shooting death of his wife, Longview Police Officer Jamie “Ellyn” Goodan.
Neither Brownlee nor District Attorney Carl Dorrough would say whether any plea deal has been struck.
“I think justice will be served in January,” Brownlee said.
A trial date for Goodan has been moved three times since March. Brownlee said that is not unusual in cases such as this one that require laboratory analyses of evidence and must await special court docket settings.
According to police reports from that time, Goodan summoned police to the Towne Oaks North apartment he and his wife shared. Reports said Goodan met officers at the door at about 8:30 a.m. that Saturday and said he killed his wife.
Goodan faces from five to 99 years or life in prison on the murder charge. A sentence at the low end of that scale would make him eligible for probation.
Goodan has been freed on $75,000 bond since January 2011. Bond initially was set at $500,000, but reduced by 188th District Judge David Brabham after a hearing at which Ellyn Goodan’s father testified in favor of his son-in-law’s bond reduction.
An autopsy found Ellyn Goodan died of a gunshot wound to the head. A police offense report partially released under the Texas Open Records Act said Goodan told officers he and his wife had been fighting in a bathroom at the Tryon Road home.
Ellyn Goodan had been a Longview Police Department officer since 1998. She served first as a reserve officer after coming from the Gregg County Sheriff’s Department, where she began her law enforcement career in 1995 as a jailer.
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