A New Hampshire man will remain in prison for decades after killing his cousin because his wife left him.
On July 26, Grafton Superior Court Judge Lawrence MacLeod sentenced 40-year-old Lance Goodrich to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the shooting death of 25-year-old Brooke Goodrich. After four hours of deliberation, Lance Goodrich was found guilty and convicted by a jury of one count of second-degree murder.
Around 12:30 pm, on Nov. 20, 2021, police officers responded to the victim’s Orford home along Route 10 after a distress call to 911. Upon arrival, they found Brooke Goodrich’s body with a gunshot wound to the head while still clutching her makeup brush.
The defendant fled the scene and barricaded himself at his grandmother’s residence in Newport. Almost four hours later, Lance Goodrich was arrested and taken into custody.
"Certainly, authorities worked very quickly to track Mr. Goodrich down and to take him into custody peacefully and without anyone being harmed in the process. That is certainly what we hope for in scenarios like this," said Senior Assistant Attorney General Geoffrey Ward, according to WMUR.
During his interview with investigators, Lance Goodrich admitted to killing his cousin because she ran her mouth and, as a result, his wife, Melina Goodrich, left him.
Prosecutors supported that motive during the trial by submitting text messages from the defendant admitting to the killing to the jury.
“Someone ran their mouth. It pissed Melina off, and she told me she was all done with me because of it, because I don’t have a backbone to stand up to anybody in my family,” wrote Lance Goodrich, reported Valley News.
At trial, Lance Goodrich’s lawyer, Mark Sisti, in a rebuttal, argued that Melina Goodrich hated the victim and claimed the defendant’s wife was the shooter, not his client. He further argued that this was the reason the state never called Melina Goodrich to the witness stand.
Lance Goodrich will be eligible for parole after serving 35 years in prison. Macleod also ordered the defendant to pay $11,185 in restitution to the New Hampshire Victims’ Compensation Fund with no future intentions to profit from his crimes.
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