Goodley gets life in prison for murder of grandmother

Exactly three months after Christopher Goodley’s fate was sealed by an Evangeline Parish Jury of 12, the 22-year old Ville Platte resident stood before Judge Chuck West to learn what sentence he would receive for committing first degree murder.
Goodley was first arrested in November of 2014 as a suspect in the murder of his 81-year old grandmother Delsy Williams. The defendant, who was high on PCP at the time of the murder, eventually sobered up while in the parish jail and then confessed to the crime.
During the trial that ended on February 4, 2016, the defendant’s attorney Jacob Fusilier argued that his client’s actions did not warrant a first degree conviction because it was the drugs that led Goodley to commit the crime and caused him not to remember what he had done.
The State, who was being represented by assistant district attorney Timmy Fontenot, however, used the evidence to disprove the defense’s argument.
Fontenot presented the jury with Goodley’s signed detailed confession to prove that had the drugs caused the defendant to forget his actions, then he wouldn’t have been able to recount all the details from the murder in his confession.
In Louisiana, the district attorney has the right to seek the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in first degree murder cases.
For Goodley, his life was spared.
On February 25, Goodley was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.