Thomas trial: Testimony shows victim as disturbed individual

Just when two teenagers told law-enforcement officials a seemingly fictional account of why they shot a 67-year-old man to death at a remote campground, a third witness fell from the sky like a gift for defense attorneys.  

It took the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office a week to locate William “Sterling” Goodrich, the man who gave Heather Henson and Stephen Thomas a ride to the victim’s campsite last July, but he confirmed everything the two had said happened while he was with them.

In a voice that was barely audible by the court’s recorder, Goodrich testified Thursday during Thomas’s trial about what happened July 12 in the hours leading up to Larry Kingsley’s death.

Goodrich recounted the story he testified to last December in Henson’s trial – that he picked up the teenage hitchhikers, agreed to take them to pick up their belongings from Kingsley’s campsite, and that Kingsley displayed bizarre and threatening behavior that frightened him into leaving.

While Goodrich was driving the two to the campsite, Henson told him that Kingsley had threatened Thomas and held them both captive at his camp the days before. Henson was set on going back, however, because everything she owned was there, Goodrich testified. She believed that with Goodrich around – a tall, solid man – Kingsley would allow them to pick up their things and leave safely. 

“Heather (Henson) held onto that strongly,” Goodrich testified. “She said it a couple of times. She said, ‘Well, I don’t think he’s going to pull anything as long as you’re with us.’”

When they reached the camper trailer, Goodrich said he could hear a gunshot whistle through the trees right over the top of his head. Then Kingsley pulled up behind them with a pickup full of loaded guns.

Goodrich confirmed earlier testimony that Kingsley threatened he would have killed people if Henson hadn’t come back to him.

“He said, ‘I was just coming to get you,’” Goodrich testified, “and he made a comment that he would shoot up the whole town to get her back.”

Goodrich described how he and Thomas kept Kingsley occupied around the campfire, while Henson gathered her things inside the camper trailer. Goodrich moved his pickup so that the headlights would shine into Kingsley’s eyes and obscure his view of Henson as she snuck boxes into the truck.

Kingsley began to get drunk and order Thomas to shoot his guns in the air, Goodrich recalled. He confirmed earlier testimony that when Thomas refused to shoot the air vent to the campground outhouse, Kingsley held a knife to his throat.

“Mr. Kingsley got up out of his chair, walked up toward him, pushed him against a tree and held a knife against his neck,” Goodrich said. “‘Do what you’re told, corporal,’ (Kingsley said). It was a slow, methodical thing that he did.”

When Goodrich asked Kingsley if he could take Henson and Thomas to see their mothers in Kalispell, Kingsley refused.

“He said, ‘I can’t allow that to happen,’” Goodrich testified. “I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘because I’m the master.’”

Kingsley told Goodrich to “leave peacefully” and stabbed his front tire with the knife, Goodrich testified.

“It scared me,” Goodrich said. “I thought he was going to give me a flat, and I didn’t want to get stuck out there.”

Henson began crying as she unloaded her bags from his pickup, Goodrich testified.

“She looked at me,” Goodrich said. “It bothered me – kind of like ‘Can’t you do something?’”

Goodrich told the jury that he prayed for them as he drove away. He tried to call 911, but didn’t have cell service.

“I felt helpless,” Goodrich said. “I felt it inside that something bad was going to happen. I felt like I bailed out on them. I was asking God to help them get out of there.”

The defense asked why he didn’t call authorities once he had cell service.

“By that time I decided it wasn’t my problem. I wasn’t the cavalry…  and there wasn’t a damned thing I could do,” Goodrich said. “Maybe that was a bad choice on my part.”

Goodrich was the defense’s first witness. Thomas is anticipated to testify this week, and the trial is scheduled to go to the jury on Wednesday.