00:00court to issue a consciousness of guilt instruction.
00:03Oh, no.
00:03That'd be bad.
00:04When a defendant ran away from court during his own trial, the judge continued the proceedings
00:08without him, and the jury ultimately found him guilty of theft.
00:11We're on the record now in the matter of the state of Ohio versus William Goodnight,
00:1426 CR 43599.
00:16We are outside the presence of the jury.
00:18The defendant has not appeared.
00:19He was in the courtroom when I announced when we would reconvene.
00:22His counsel has attempted to contact him via his mobile phone.
00:26We've searched the courthouse.
00:27He's not in the courthouse.
00:28His car is not in the parking lot.
00:30Is that correct?
00:31Correct, Your Honor.
00:31Is there anything with regard to his absence that I need to tell the jury?
00:35I think it may.
00:36I'm trying to do some research.
00:38I think it may allow the court to issue a consciousness of guilt instruction.
00:43Oh, no.
00:44That'd be bad.
00:44I mean, he's not fleeing from an arrest.
00:47I don't know that I want to go that far.
00:48I don't know.
00:48I've never heard of that before.
00:50Again, I mean, I've never had this occur.
00:53You may have noticed that Mr. Goodnight is not present in the courtroom.
00:57We'll continue without him.
00:58You've heard all the evidence in this case.
01:00That on September 1st, 2025, Fendant walks in to the Menards in Loveland.
01:05He heads to the wiring section, goes down aisle 14, where eight minutes later, he's joined by his buddy, Daryl
01:11Cole.
01:11Mr. Cole enters with an empty lawnmower box.
01:14Mr. Goodnight shadows him.
01:16Mr. Cole proceeds to step off camera, conceal that decoy box, and load up spools of copper wire onto his
01:23flatbedded cart.
01:24As he's doing that, Mr. Goodnight walks by and watches.
01:27That wire is then loaded up into that lawn roller box.
01:31They exit from the same area of the store, a few aisles apart.
01:34Mr. Cole heads to the checkout and pays cash for the lawn roller box, not the copper wire concealed inside.
01:41He exits and heads to the white pickup truck that they arrived in.
01:45Mr. Goodnight leaves approximately 30 seconds later.
01:48Mr. Cole loads up the items stolen in the back of the truck.
01:52Mr. Goodnight arrives at the truck as Mr. Cole is finishing loading that copper wire.
01:57They get into the truck and they leave.
01:58They each had their role to play and they played them.
02:00And for that, ladies and gentlemen, I would ask that you return a verdict of guilty.
02:04If you look at the elements of each offense, the elements that are necessary to prove each of those elements,
02:08you won't find them in the evidence presented to you.
02:10You'll be asked to assume that they're talking to each other on the phone.
02:13You'll be asked to assume that Mr. Goodnight knew what he was going to do before he got there.
02:17You'll have to assume that there was some other time that they were involved in another illegal activity.
02:22You're supposed to look at the evidence presented to you.
02:23Apply it to these elements and see if it meets the highest burden.
02:26If you find that any one of these elements does not have the proof sufficient to sustain that burden,
02:30and the entire enterprise fails, and you must leave Mr. Goodnight as he was when he got here today, which
02:35is not guilty.
02:36The verdict form reads as follows.
02:37We, the jury, being duly impaneled, sworn or firm, find the defendant, William Goodnight, guilty of theft as he stands
02:42to charge the indictment.
02:43Your Honor, based on the defendants absconding during this trial and the verdict, we would ask that his bond be
02:49revoked in a KPSP issue.
02:50The bond is revoked, issue a KPSP.
