It’ll be another 10 years before former Wellington polo mogul John Goodman is set free.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath on Friday denied Goodman’s request to reduce his 16-year state prison sentence for his 2014 conviction in a fatal drunken driving crash.
The ruling means the 55-year-old heir to a Texas heating and air conditioning fortune will continue to have a release date of Jan. 28, 2029, barring another development in the high-profile case.
Colbath wrote that he “carefully reviewed” the matter but otherwise did not elaborate in his one-page order.
Court records show Goodman spent millions of dollars on his defense, which lasted through a 2012 trial and a do-over two years later, and then a flurry of unsuccessful appeals that went as far as the Florida Supreme Court. The United States Supreme Court last year declined to review the case.
That left Goodman seemingly one last option — returning to the trial court and asking for a break on his punishment.
During a hearing Monday, Goodman’s lawyer offered evidence that he has been “a model prisoner” since a jury found him guilty of DUI manslaughter in the Feb. 12, 2010, of Scott Patrick Wilson, 23.
This includes having no disciplinary reports and completing more than 1,000 hours of Alcoholics Anonymous programs and other self-help courses at Wakulla Correctional Institution, south of Tallahassee.
Goodman’s new wife, along with other friends and family members, also sent letters to the court describing his extensive efforts to become a better person and also become a teacher to some of his fellow inmates.
Attorney Douglas Duncan said Goodman’s “life changing post-sentencing rehabilitation over the last four years” justified a new sentence of 11½ years.
Even Judge Colbath remarked that Goodman’s efforts appeared “earnest” and “much to Mr. Goodman’s credit it doesn’t seem like anyone could do more.”
Scott Patrick Wilson, 23, died on Feb. 12, 2010 in Wellington after his car was hit by a Bentley driven by polo club founder John Goodman.
Scott Patrick Wilson, 23, died on Feb. 12, 2010 in Wellington after his car was hit by a Bentley driven by polo club founder John Goodman.
(Wilson family / courtesy)
But it wasn’t enough. Colbath also took into consideration the recommendation from Wilson’s divorced parents to keep Goodman locked up for as long as possible.
Goodman, through his insurance company, in 2012 settled a wrongful death civil claim brought by William Wilson and Lili Wilson, with a reported $40 million settlement.
Prosecutors at both of Goodman’s criminal trials leaned on blood samples collected from Goodman three hours after his $250,000 Bentley Continental GTC convertible blew through a stop sign at 63 mph and slammed into Wilson’s Hyundai Sonata at a Wellington intersection.
Wilson’s car flipped upside down into a canal, where the University of Central Florida engineering graduate drowned.
Goodman’s blood-alcohol content measured 0.177, or more than twice the 0.08 legal limit to drive. The prosecutors said the test results proved Goodman was impaired before the crash, as a result of drinking that night at three Wellington bars.
The jury rejected Goodman’s claims that his car malfunctioned and that he chugged liquor inside a “man cave” — a polo player’s barn office with a bar — while looking for a phone to call 911.
mjfreeman@sun-sentinel.com, 561-243-6642 or Twitter @marcjfreeman