A Poplar Bluff man was ordered to stand trial Monday afternoon for his alleged role in connection to the death of another man whose remains were found at the bottom of a drained lake.
Accompanied by his attorney, Eldrid Leon Smith, 27, appeared before Associate Circuit Judge Thomas David Swindle for a preliminary hearing on the Class A felony of first-degree murder.
After hearing from four witnesses and arguments from Smith’s attorney, Rance Butler, and Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Kacey Proctor, Swindle found sufficient evidence to bind Smith over for trial.
Swindle ordered Smith to appear at 9 a.m. March 26 before Presiding Circuit Judge Michael Pritchett for arraignment on the charge.
Smith is accused of “acting alone or knowingly in concert with another” to cause the death of Edward Goodwin by shooting him on June 29, 2015.
Goodwin’s mother, Connie Goodwin, testified she last saw her 32-year-old son on June 27, 2015.
At the time her son disappeared, she said, he was working on a bathroom remodel with Smith. He didn’t show to work June 28-30, 2015.
She said no one would answer her son’s cellphone, which would ring.
On either July 2, or July 3, 2015, Connie Goodwin said, Smith told her that her son “took off to Alabama with some girl. … I took his word for it. That he took off and went to Alabama with some girl, I didn’t believe it.”
Smith, she said, told her he had picked Edward Goodwin up at the job site and dropped him off at Rombauer.
Family members, she said, searched for Edward Goodwin and contacted AT&T to track his phone.
After contacting the last numbers on his phone, Connie Goodwin said, she received a screen shot of a text message, which had been sent to a woman, which read “This is E.L.”
The witness said she later learned Smith went by “E.L.”
When it was received, “we had no way of knowing it was Eldrid Smith,” she said. “We didn’t know who sent the text,” only that the person had “my son’s phone.”
Edward Goodwin, she said, didn’t show up for the family’s regular July 4 get together. As a father, “he was always around the kids,” she said.
Connie Goodwin reported her son missing to the Butler County Sheriff’s Department on July 5, 2015.
The witness also confirmed there was “bad blood” between her son ad Ricky Hurt.
Butler County Investigator Randle Huddleston said he and then investigator Wes Popp contacted Smith at the job site on July 6, 2015.
“We advised him we received information from Ed Goodwin’s family,” said Huddleston, who indicated they asked about the text message received from Edward Goodwin’s phone.
Smith, he said, reported dropping Goodwin off at Rombauer to “meet a young lady…. (Goodwin) gave him the SIM card from his phone and told him to hang onto it.
“If anyone asked, (Smith) was to say he was going to Alabama.”
Huddleston said he asked whether Smith still had he SIM card. Smith, he said, indicated it was at his fiancee, Cassie Knox’s house.
Huddleston said Knox subsequently brought the SIM card into the sheriff’s department, and Smith identified it as being Goodwin’s.
Smith, he said, also indicated Goodwin told him to “hang onto his tools for a while.”
Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs said information was “gleaned from interviews and the investigation that (Smith) had property items belonging to Ed Goodwin, as well as his account of the events about the last time he saw Ed Goodwin didn’t add up.”
The items, he said, include the SIM card from Goodwin’s phone.
Later, he said, investigators learned Smith sold a pair of Goodwin’s “high-dollar sunglasses” to Hurt.
Tools, with Goodwin’s name on them, also were found at Smith’s residence during the execution of a search warrant, Dobbs said.
On Sept. 14, 2015, Dobbs said, he interviewed Smith.
During that interview, Smith reportedly provided Dobbs with an account similar to what he earlier told investigators.
In a second interview, Dobbs said, Smith “teared up” and became emotional.
Smith, he said, admitted he did, “in fact, know what happened to Ed Goodwin” and indicated other individuals were involved.
Dobbs said Smith reported he “delivered” Goodwin to a group of people after he had “run afoul with some folks.”
Before arriving at the location, “(Smith) told me he stopped at a location on 572 to get some drugs,” which Goodwin had hidden, Dobbs said. “Ed hoped to rectify the debt.”
Assault reportedly was the intent, and Goodwin was struck with an object, Dobbs said.
During the investigation, Dobbs said, the “historic data” was obtained for both Smith and Goodwin’s cellphones. That information, he said, included longitude and latitude quadrants, pinpointing each’s last locations.
“Ed Goodwin’s historic data, his phone was in a farm field about three-tenths of a mile down (County Road) 572,” Dobbs said. “Eldrid Smith’s historic data indicates he was right there on T Highway” in close proximity to Edward Goodwin’s phone on June 29, 2015.
Dobbs said he re-interviewed Smith in 2017.
“He stated he was tired of being locked up when the responsible party was out,” Dobbs said.
At the time, he said, Smith alleged Hurt had killed Goodwin, and the last time he had seen him was at the pond.
Dobbs said Smith further indicated he took Goodwin to the location, where he knew Hurt was going to shoot him.
“He said when Ed got out of the vehicle, he saw Ricky Hurt come up behind him with a gun and begin firing at Ed,” Dobbs said. “ … Ed took off running, and Ricky chased after him. At some point, he seen Ed Goodwin splash into the pond and not get back up.”
As Smith was being interview, Dobbs said, officers simultaneously were executing a search warrant on a private pond located on County Road 572, where partial human remains were found. The remains were Goodwin’s.
Dobbs said phone records indicated there were numerous calls made between Hurt and Smith, including the morning of June 29, 2015. There were none, he said, between Hurt and Goodwin.
On cross-examination, Dobbs said, he had three recorded interviews with Smith, as well as spoke with him “informally” at different times.
At one point, Dobbs said, Smith indicated threats had been made toward him.
The state’s final witness was Garland Jewel, who said he received a call from Hurt at about 10:30 a.m. June 29, 2015, asking him to come pick him up.
Jewel said he went across a bean field about a half-mile toward a pond. He said he had no idea why he was to go to that location.
“The only person I saw was Ricky Hurt,” Jewel explained. “ … He came down towards me, jumped in my truck. He told me ‘I killed him.’”
Jewel said he did not know who Hurt was referring to.
“I stopped my truck, put it in park, got the keys” and got out, Jewel said. “I told Ricky to get out of my truck.”
When Jewel asked who Hurt at killed, “he said, ‘I killed Eddie.’ I didn’t know Eddie,” said Jewel, who further testified he saw a body in the shallow pond.
Jewel said he could see the body’s face was partially out of the water, as were the knee caps.
“I didn’t know what to think … Ricky was very cold about the whole thing,” Jewel said. “He said, ‘I need you to go to my house and get my burn barrel. He said no body, no crime.’”
Jewel said he had no idea what was going on, but thought Hurt had been “double crossed,” and he gone there to “get him out of the situation.”
Jewel said he told Hurt he was not going to get involved.
As he started to leave, “Ricky said, ‘Don’t turn me in,’” said Jewel, who indicated he told Hurt he would not turn him in nor would he help him.
Jewel said he was fearful for his own safety. “I just wanted out,” he said.
At one point, Jewel said, he asked who else was involved.
“‘E.L.’ I didn’t know who E.L. was,” said Jewel, who indicated he now knows that is Smith, someone he had only met once before.
On cross-examination, Butler asked Jewel about a statement he had written in December 2016.
Jewel said that was a statement “I made because I knew this day was coming. I wanted my facts (down) … This is exactly what happened” that day.
Initially, he said copies were given to relatives because “I thought I might not live through this myself.”
Jewel confirmed he got about four calls from Hurt to come and get him on the morning of June 29, 2015.
Jewel said he had no idea why Hurt would be calling him as they had limited contact with each other.
Jewel alleged Hurt came to his home for three days straight and threatened to drown his wife if Jewel turned him in.
While at the pond, Jewel confirmed he didn’t see any other vehicles or people, including Smith.
“Did Ricky Hurt identify anyone other than Ricky Hurt as killing Ed Goodwin,” Butler asked.
“No,” said Jewel, who subsequently indicated the area around the pond was wooded, and he would have been unable to see anyone behind the pond levee.
In responding to Swindle, Jewel also said, he did not see Hurt with a firearm.
Butler subsequently argued the state had not shown that his client had anything to do with Goodwin’s death.
“There is no evidence whatsoever,” he said. “ … There is no evidence Eldrid Smith was a participant in the killing. … We have testimony that Edward Goodwin was killed by Ricky Hurt.”
Proctor argued Smith is charged with acting in concert, and the evidence showed there were phone calls between he and Hurt.
Smith, he said, also made up the story about Goodwin going to Alabama and put the victim’s SIM card in his phone.
Proctor said Smith took Goodwin to a location where “Ricky Hurt then shot him.”