The murder of Erma Jean Goodou
Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma · 1994
Overview
Erma Jean Goodou, a 32-year-old mother, was beaten to death inside her home in the 800 block of East 51st Place North in Tulsa, Oklahoma, early on July 30, 1994, after an intruder broke in through a window in what authorities described as a break-in and attempted rape. Her 13-year-old daughter found her body in the kitchen. Investigators collected fingerprints and DNA at the scene, but no match was found, and the case went cold for nearly two decades. In 2012 Tulsa detectives submitted the crime-scene DNA to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation under a cold case grant, and in 2014 it matched a sample that the Texas Department of Public Safety had taken from Leroy Edward Gilbert Jr. after an unrelated arrest. Gilbert, who had lived within a mile of Goodou and said he had attended high school with her, was arrested in Bonham, Texas, in 2015. A Tulsa County jury convicted him of first-degree murder on September 21, 2017, and recommended life without parole; he was sentenced in November 2017, and the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and life sentence in April 2019.
How it was solved
Physical evidence, including fingerprints and DNA, was recovered from the Goodou scene in 1994, but at the time it produced no investigative match and the killing remained unsolved for almost twenty years. The break came through the database technology that had not existed at the time of the crime. In 2012, Tulsa Police detectives, working a cold case grant, submitted the preserved crime-scene DNA to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation for renewed analysis. Separately, the Texas Department of Public Safety had collected a DNA sample from Leroy Edward Gilbert Jr. following an unrelated arrest in Texas. In 2014 the OSBI reported that the DNA recovered from Goodou's body matched Gilbert's profile. The Tulsa County District Attorney issued a first-degree murder warrant on May 21, 2015, and Gilbert was arrested that same period in Bonham, Texas. Investigators established that Gilbert had listed an address within roughly a mile of Goodou's home in 1994; at trial he acknowledged that the two had attended high school together but denied being at her home the night she was killed. State forensic witnesses testified that the DNA sample taken from Goodou's body was of such quality that it was statistically implausible to attribute it to anyone other than Gilbert or to claim it had been deposited long before the killing. After deliberating about four and a half hours, the jury found Gilbert, 54, guilty of first-degree murder on September 21, 2017, and recommended a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. District Judge Kelly Greenough sentenced him in November 2017. Gilbert appealed, and on April 25, 2019, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and life sentence.
Sources
- Jury finds man guilty in Tulsa cold-case murder solved through DNA
“A jury found Leroy Edward Gilbert Jr., 54, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Erma Jean Goodou and recommended he receive a life without parole sentence.”
- DNA match found in 1994 cold-case killing of Tulsa woman; Texas man arrested
“Goodou was found dead early July 30, 1994, after what authorities said was a break-in and attempted rape at her home in the 800 block of East 51st Place North.”
- Man found guilty of 1994 murder of Tulsa woman
“A jury found Leroy Gilbert Jr. guilty Thursday of the 1994 death of Erma Goodou; the jury recommended life in prison without parole, with sentencing scheduled for November 7.”
- DNA Evidence Leads To Arrest In 1994 Tulsa Murder
“In 2012, detectives submitted DNA evidence collected from the 1994 crime scene to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation as part of a cold case grant, and DNA analysis confirmed a match in 2014.”
- Man arrested in Texas in more than 20-year-old Tulsa slaying
“Authorities apprehended Gilbert in Texas after a DNA sample matched evidence collected from the victim in the 1994 Tulsa slaying.”
- Oklahoma court affirms life sentence in slayings of 4 women
“The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the life prison sentence of 56-year-old Leroy Edward Gilbert Jr., convicted in the July 30, 1994, slaying of 32-year-old Erma Jean Goodou.”
- Oklahoma court affirms life sentence in slayings of 4 women in Tulsa
“The court affirmed the life prison sentence of Leroy Edward Gilbert Jr., age 56, in the murder of Erma Jean Goodou, age 32, who was killed on July 30, 1994.”
- Erma Jean Goodou
“Erma Jean Goodou, 32, was killed in her north Tulsa home on July 30, 1994, in a case solved decades later through DNA and resulting in the conviction of Leroy Edward Gilbert Jr.”