Accused killer in deputy Goforth case pleads guilty, avoids death penalty

It was a kitchen table conversation between a widow and a prosecutor that finally laid to rest the cold-blooded murder of Harris County Deputy Sheriff Darren Goforth.

Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon described the moment on Wednesday in an interview after presenting a guilty plea at a court hearing that would send Goforth's killer, Shannon Miles, 32, to prison for life without parole.

Alone with Kathleen Goforth in the kitchen of the family's Houston home in recent weeks, Ligon said he laid out the case against Miles.

The brutal ambush of her husband at a gas station in August 2015 had been caught on surveillance video as he was shot repeatedly in the back of the head.

The investigation had problems, but they were nothing insurmountable for an experienced team of prosecutors. And there was a defendant who would probably be sentenced to death and, because of his history of mental health problems, never be executed.

"She said it was a no-brainer," Ligon said. "She made an incredibly compelling case that I had never thought I'd be as open to as I was. She wants today to be the last day that her name, or her kids' names, are associated with this case. She does not want to live with one foot in the cemetery. She wants to live the rest of her life with her kids and with the memory of her husband."

After the brief plea hearing Wednesday in state district court, the widow broke down in tears as she explained that it was mercy for her children, not Miles, that led her to sign off on the controversial plea deal.

"Mine and Darren's two children have been spared. They will not have the backdrop of their lives, for the next 10 to 25 years, being court dates, trials and appeals," she said, standing before a bank of reporters. "They won't have that inflicted upon them and that is merciful. It's compassionate and it's the right thing to do."

As she held up the last photos taken of her children with their dad, she briefly exposed tattoos on her left forearm memorializing her husband's life.

"I know that Darren would approve with how this has played out, because his primary concern would be what it always was: Ava and Ryan," she said. "And that's how I want him remembered — as a man who loved his family."

The plea deal ends two years of national headlines that began when Miles gunned down Goforth, 47, next to his patrol car in a north Harris County gas station.

On Wednesday, law enforcement officers of every stripe filled the ceremonial courtroom of the civil courthouse as Miles appeared in a bright yellow jail uniform before state District Judge Susan Brown.

Miles said little except that he was guilty and that he understood he would be sentenced to life without parole.

The plea bargain, which was anticipated to upset members of the law enforcement community, came in part because of Miles' lengthy history of mental health issues has stymied the case. He has been in and out of state mental hospitals since being arrested days after the shooting. He also spent several months in a mental health facility in 2012.

"He's an episodic psychotic and schizophrenic," said defense attorney Anthony Osso. "He has no memory of that day in his life."

Osso, who spent months with attorney Charles Brown meeting with Miles, put together a large packet of mitigating circumstances to try to convince to prosecutors not to seek the death penalty.

Experts said when Miles is medicated, as he was Wednesday, he is competent and can make decisions. When he does not take the medication, he is not. So, Osso said, prosecutors were likely to face an uphill legal battle to keep him medicated long enough to execute him.

It was a realization that prosecutors agreed with.

"The state's experts all came to the same conclusion, the likelihood of executing a mentally incompetent man was almost zero," Ligon said. He said he was convinced that Miles has some "crossed wires" and the difference was "an organic disability—a God-given wire crossing if you will—as opposed to a drug-induced crazy guy."

"I can kill a drug-induced crazy guy and, frankly, that's what I thought I was getting when I started," he said. "It's different when you have a true mental deficiency."

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Ligon took over the case with Galveston County District Attorney Jack Roady in April after Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg recused her office because at least one of her top lieutenants had represented witnesses in the case.

Ligon credited Ogg with offering to shoulder some of the expense of what could have been a multimillion-dollar prosecution.

"To her credit, when I called her, Kim Ogg said, 'Give me the numbers and I'll get you the money,'" he said. "Everyone bent over backwards to make this happen."

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After the brief hearing, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said Goforth would be immortalized as a deputy sheriff.

"He will always be remembered for his service, his bravery, and his sacrifice," Gonzalez said. "Today, the Goforth family and the Harris County Sheriff's Office family are pleased to learn that justice will be served upon Deputy Goforth's killer."

David Cuevas, the president of the Harris County Deputies Organization agreed.

"Our hearts and prayers go always to Kathleen Goforth and her family," he said. "Justice has been served in this case."

The mechanics of a plea deal Wednesday were problematic because the main criminal courthouse, which has secure access for defendants, is closed because of record flooding from Hurricane Harvey.

Sheriff's deputies had to securely move Miles from the Harris County jail to the top floor of the Harris County Civil Courthouse.

Plans for a plea deal were tenuous because of worldwide publicity and outrage about the ambush, which was considered an easy case because of the surveillance video. Ligon said he took the case, expecting to seek the death penalty under Texas law that allows for execution if a peace officer is intentionally killed in the line of duty.

On Wednesday, he discounted several issues that had arisen as the case has progressed, saying that he and his team could have successfully navigated them in front of a jury.