Spencer Goodman was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Cecile Ham
According to court documents Spencer Goodman would force his way into a vehicle of Cecile Ham. He would drive to a remote location where he would beat the woman to death and broke her neck
Spencer Goodman would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Spencer Goodman would be executed by lethal injection on January 18 2000
Spencer Goodman Photos
Spencer Goodman FAQ
When Was Spencer Goodman Executed
Spencer Goodman was executed on January 18 2000
Spencer Goodman Case
Cecile Ham left her Houston residence at approximately 1:20 p.m., July 2, 1991. A friend at the residence expected her to return, but she did not return, and she was reported missing the next day. At the time of her disappearance, Ham was 48 years old, approximately five feet three inches in height, and approximately 130 pounds in weight. She owned a red 1991 Cadillac automobile.
On August 7, 1991, a deputy sheriff in Eagle County, Colorado, arrested Spencer Corey Goodman after a high-speed automobile chase through the Colorado mountains. Goodman surrendered to the deputy only after driving Ham’s Cadillac over a low cliff and wrecking it. Shortly thereafter, Goodman gave a written statement, which read in relevant part:
On July 1, 1991, I was released from the old Bexar County Jail where I was being held [at a ] Wackenhut Parole Violators Facility. I was given a bus ride back to Houston, Texas by Wackenhut and dropped off on the east side of town at 9:30 a.m. I was given my papers to report to Texas House at 5:30 p.m. that night. Instead of going to the halfway house I started walking west. I walked most of the night. . . . . I laid down for a while along the side of the railroad tracks but I kept getting eat up by mosquitos so I could not sleep. During the day on Tuesday, July 2, 1991, I started walking out Memorial Drive. During the mid-afternoon it started raining. I walked up into a Walgreens parking lot maybe about 4:00 p.m. and just hung around the parking lot for about 20 to 30 minutes. I saw a white female drive up in a 1991 red Cadillac. She pulled up in the firelane along the blind side of the parking lot and then went into the Walgreens store. At that time I was not really watching her, but I don’t think that she stayed inside the drug store very long. When the lady came out of the store she opened the driver’s door and started getting into the car. I decided at that point that I wanted to take her car from her. I had been walking for a long time and my feet hurt and I wanted some transportation. I ran up behind her while the driver’s door was still open. She was sitting behind the wheel, and I shoved her over with one hand and punched her just under the left ear, to knock her out. She fell over to the passenger’s side and was knocked unconscious. I got into the driver’s seat. I think that I may have hit her in the back of the neck to make sure that she was unconscious. I think that the keys to the car were in her hand because they fell to the floor. I picked them up and started the car and then looked around to see if anyone had seen what happened. It was raining, and there was nobody around the parking lot. I first pulled out of the parking lot and turned right on Memorial going west, but there was a subdivision down that way, so I turned around and went to the Dairy Ashford for a ways and then turned off towards the west. I know that I was near a high school off of Dairy Ashford. I pulled off the main road and parked on a side road off behind this little building. I then used martial arts and broke the lady’s neck. I don’t know why I did it, but I know that I was lost. I then put her in the trunk of the car. I did not have on a shirt because my shirt was wet from the rain. I was also wearing jogging pants. After I put her in the trunk, I drove down this road. I was right by this high school when I saw this guy in a truck. I then asked him how to get to I-10. . . . I followed the guy’s direction. As I was driving I went through the lady’s purse and got out her wallet. I found about $20.00 and some change in her purse and some credit cards. I saw an Exxon gas station at HWY 6 and Westheimer so I stopped and filled up with gas. I used the Exxon gas card and signed the name on the card. I then got on I-10 and headed west. . . . . . . I knew that she was dead when I put her in the trunk because I felt on her pulse. . . .
On August 8, 1991, Spencer Goodman, after being returned to Texas, led law enforcement officials to the remains of his victim’s body, which he had dumped in an open field near Uvalde. An autopsy of the remains confirmed that they were those of Ham and revealed that the cause of her death had been “blunt trauma to [her] head and neck.” On August 9, 1991, at a Houston police station, Goodman gave a videotaped statement, which was consistent with his earlier written statement. The videotape showed that Goodman was an adult male approximately twenty years of age, apparently healthy and strong, and approximately six feet in height and 200 pounds in weight.
Spencer Goodman testified in his defense and admitted that, while in the Walgreens parking lot in Houston on July 2, 1991, he struck Ham in the head and neck with his fist in order to steal her car, but he denied breaking her neck or intending to cause her death.
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/newspubs/releases/2000/20000114goodmanadvsy.htm