“At some point, did you go to Alabama with him?”
“Yes. We were in his mother’s car, me, Joshua Gouker and Joshua Young.”
“Did you know before you left that this would be a trip to Mississippi?”
“Yes.”
“How long did you think this would take?”
“Long enough to get to Mississippi and home.” Angelic then detailed how their plans changed when the car broke down in the middle of nowhere and left them stranded in Tennessee.
The prosecution concluded its questioning of Angelic and Pete Schuler took his turn. As the questioning wore on, he began to ask Angelic about the way Gouker was ultimately apprehended after he had appeared at her home following his stint in an Alabama jail.
“He showed up on your doorstep?”
“In my bedroom.”
“Did US Marshalls pick him up?”
“The Marshall had come and given me their card,” she began. “…It was a few days later I woke up to him in my bedroom.”
“When he did show up, did you immediately call them?” Schuler asked.
“No, I contacted someone else and they called because he was standing right in my face,” Angelic stated. She went on to assert her concern that Gouker would come after her or attempt to set her up in some way.12
To those who heard her testimony, Angelic was clearly scared of Gouker and had a legitimate fear that Gouker would do anything to protect himself even if he had to injure others in the process. She left many spectators in the courtroom shaking their heads as she sprinted up the courtroom aisle and out to the hallway after Judge Willett excused her from the witness box.
Many felt the witnesses connected to Gouker called to the stand by the prosecution rivaled a daytime talk show episode, but the witness who everyone was waiting to see take the stand was Josh Gouker himself.
Chapter 14
Mask on the Monster
Would the jury hear from Josh Gouker? Gouker had pled guilty to Trey’s murder and contended that he had acted alone. However, that was just the most recent version of the many accounts of Trey’s death that he told in the months following the murder. Many people felt he was a volatile, dishonest man at best and a sadistic psychopath at worst. Either side would likely be unable to control Gouker if he were called to testify; it was impossible to predict what he would say on any given day. His story of the murder had changed drastically throughout the investigation and, even after police charged Gouker as his son’s co-defendant, he continued to alter his story. Those present in the courtroom wondered if he would have the opportunity to present yet another account from the witness stand.
Although it is not uncommon for a co-defendant to take the stand in a trial, the situation in this case was quite rare. Generally, a defendant has the constitutional right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This precludes either side from calling that person as a witness and forcing him to testify if doing so would implicate that person in a crime. If a witness is in agreement, he may waive that right. If the co-defendants are tried together in a consolidated trial, they will often opt to remain silent. In cases where a co-defendant waives his or her Fifth Amendment right and testifies against the accused, there is almost always a plea bargain already in place with the prosecutor. Specifically, that person receives something in return for his testimony, usually a lighter sentence or probation.
The Joshua Young case was different. Josh Gouker had already pled guilty to the murder of Trey Zwicker and had received a life sentence. However, the guilty plea was not the result of a plea bargain with the prosecution. Gouker had entered an “open plea” and allowed the judge to select his sentence. He had repeatedly professed his desire to testify in his son’s trial. However, it had been unclear whether either side would elect to take the gamble of actually calling him to the stand.
The prosecution took the chance and on day four of the trial, prosecutor Erin White stood and announced to the court that the Commonwealth’s next witness was Josh Gouker. Nearly everyone in the courtroom sat upright; the tension was palpable. It took several minutes for Gouker to appear. A door on the left side of the courtroom led to the holding cell area, a place where prisoners were confined as they waited to appear before the Judge. This is where Gouker sat for hours during the trial, subpoenaed to testify and waiting to see if either side would call him to the stand. Gouker was now serving his life sentence for Trey’s murder. He was also serving time for his previous crimes of robbery in the second degree, assault in the second degree and intimidating a witness in a legal proceeding. After he was charged with Trey’s murder, the judge quickly revoked his parole on those charges and he had once again adjusted to prison life.
As his son’s trial progressed, Josh Gouker was held at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex. Located in Lagrange, Kentucky, “Luckett,” as it is called by inmates, is a medium security prison that houses more than one thousand convicts. It was from that prison that Gouker was transported to testify and the fact that he was readjusting to prison life was apparent as he sauntered into the courtroom.
Gouker wore heavy shackles on both his hands and feet that forced him into a cumbersome-looking shuffle as he moved. At the same time, he attempted to maintain a relaxed, self-assured look, almost certainly the way he had strutted on the streets.
Gouker was a short man but what he lacked in height he made up for in mass. At approximately 230 pounds, Gouker was an imposing figure, even in shackles, and no one could doubt his ability to intimidate those around him. Gouker wore the orange prison garb indicative of his incarceration, a one-piece jumpsuit that snapped up the front, layered over a plain white t-shirt.
As he entered the witness box, Gouker never once looked in the direction of his son who sat nearby at the defense table.
Prosecutor Erin White began questioning Big Josh regarding his present living situation, asking where he was housed in the prison system. From the outset it was obvious that Big Josh would not be an easy or predictable witness. When the prosecutor asked him to speak up, he screamed into the microphone in an attempt to establish that he was in full control.
“What are you serving?” she asked and before the question was even completed, Big Josh blurted his answer.
“Life,” he stated nonchalantly.
“Why?”
“For killing Trey,” Gouker shrugged, an emotionless look on his face.1
Gouker’s mannerisms and presence conveyed his message. He would talk and answer questions but he would do so on his terms. It was obvious that this man was accustomed to doing things his way and pressuring and intimidating those around him to comply. He was just warming up and as his testimony progressed, courtroom viewers and news commentators would question whether Gouker could really be so outrageous and narcissistic. Viewers wondered if his testimony was a well-rehearsed act to exert control on the justice system or a performance intended to free his son.
As the news hosts and talking heads expressed their impressions of the trial, many questioned whether the Commonwealth calling Josh Gouker to the stand was helpful or harmful. Surely the attorneys realized that as a career criminal he would probably do little to aid the prosecution in convicting his son. Gouker had spent his adult years manipulating the system. Regardless of the love he had or did not have for Little Josh, he seemed to thrive on controlling everything and everyone around him. If he could hurt the prosecution in any way, he would do it. Gouker held grudges and that very prosecution team had fought for his own incarceration. It appears most likely that the prosecution called Gouker as a preemptive strike. Gouker gave several media interviews and proclaimed that he alone was to blame for Trey’s murder. In fact, in that very courtroom, he had entered a guilty plea and claimed on the record that he had acted alone. However, the prosecution knew if they did not call Gouker, the defense would, in order to show that someone else was convicted of the crime and had claimed that he acted alone. Perhaps the prosecution felt t
hat by calling Gouker themselves it would defuse the situation.
White began to question Gouker regarding the murder and his statements when he entered his guilty plea. Even in response to her direct questions, Gouker said what he wanted to say. He took the opportunity to explain why he murdered Trey.
A look of resolve on his face, Gouker stated, “It just felt right at the time. It wasn’t like I wanted Trey to die, or if I could do it over I would do it again. His mother killed a couple of mine and it just felt right. I know it sounds monstrous and all that shit, but it’s not. If we were in the Old Testament it would be the same thing,” he said, referring to the two previous abortions of his babies that Amanda underwent.2
A constant theme in the trial was “an eye for an eye,” a mantra Gouker professed repeatedly. He continually alleged that one of the contributing factors to Trey’s murder was the fact that Trey’s mother, Amanda, had aborted Gouker’s babies. Given the fact that Gouker missed the majority of his own son’s life, worked only sporadically, was a violent ex-con and lacked stable housing, he was hardly father-of-the-year material. However, it was likely not fatherhood he craved so much as the ability to control situations. If Amanda gave birth to his child, he would have more control over her. It apparently enraged him that she made the decision to abort his children without his permission. Therefore, it was likely not the aborted fetuses which upset him as much as the fact that Amanda dared to make an important decision without him, that she stripped him of control. To Gouker, people were expendable pawns who were of no use to him if he could not control them. When Amanda took control and had an abortion, he had attempted to regain power by killing Trey: “an eye for an eye.”
With the prosecutor’s prompting, Gouker revealed his actions in killing Trey and his recollections of the night of Trey’s death. He spoke about the family cookout at Amanda’s and the fact that he and Amanda spent time at his cousin Cassi’s home that evening. At some point, he contended, Amanda noticed that several of her things were at Cassi’s home and she confronted Gouker about stealing her belongings. As was common in their relationship, the two fought. Gouker recounted that they later had sex several times and he alleged that was the way that they made up after fighting.
Gouker later went into detail regarding the sex acts. He testified that he and Amanda planned to have sex outside, but that plan was thwarted when Trey walked out onto the back porch. They eventually retired to the bedroom and had sex once, visited a local gas station to purchase cigarettes and then came home and had sex again, incorporating a banana into the act. He recorded the second session with Amanda’s cell phone camera so that he could view it later. Per his testimony, he topped off the evening by playing a video game and smoking marijuana.
As White urged him to relate the details of the evening as testified to in his confession, Gouker became frustrated and lashed out, “I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to make microscopic little holes in the shit that I didn’t even give a fuck about two years ago, so how can I tell you the exact thing now when I really didn’t give a fuck then?”3
“If you’re telling the truth it shouldn’t be that hard.”
“But I’m a fucking l…Yeah, but goddamn, I’ve lied this whole fucking time. Except for since arraignment, since arraignment I’ve told you I done it. I’ve admitted everything I’ve done. I’ve been sentenced for it, life in prison. Yet here I am, going over the same fucking story,” he said, raising his voice and glancing back and forth between the jurors and the judge in the case. His frustration with the prosecutor’s repeated questioning was evident.
The story Gouker told was that as he played video games, Trey came into the room and asked for a cigarette. Gouker noticed that Trey pulled a lighter out of his pocket, a lighter that belonged to Gouker. Although it annoyed Gouker that Trey was in possession of his lighter, he didn’t say anything. However, Gouker became even more upset when he went to the kitchen to eat a plate of food Amanda had saved for him and discovered that Trey had eaten it. At that moment, he decided that he would teach Trey a lesson by scaring him. He offered to smoke with Trey and the two went out to the back porch.4
Before they could sit down, Gouker convinced Trey to walk with him to “The Spot,” the area where Liberty High School students would ultimately find Trey’s body. It is likely that Trey had no clue that he was in danger as he and his stepfather approached the creek bed near the culvert. It was an area where teenagers routinely met to sneak cigarettes and, occasionally, marijuana. The parents of neighborhood children had visited the same spot to do the same things when they were teens. Gouker described it as a place where Trey would have been comfortable.
As his testimony continued, Gouker set the stage for what transpired once he and Trey reached “The Spot” that evening. He stated that a discarded metal pipe lay on the creek bed and that Trey picked it up and started hitting a nearby tree. Gouker began to confront him about stealing from him, referring to the lighter he felt Trey had taken. According to Gouker, the man deemed a thief by almost everyone who knew him became upset because a fourteen-year-old boy was using his cheap lighter, a lighter Trey likely picked up in his own home. Puffing out his chest, Gouker warned Trey that the next time he stole from him, he would treat Trey like a man, insinuating that he would give him a beat down worthy of a grown adult. Gouker recalled Trey responding, “Then you and my dad will have a problem.”5
Trey was likely referring to the fact that his father, already wary of the situation, would file custody papers to remove Trey from Amanda’s home. Gouker testified he knew exactly what Trey meant and exactly what Trey’s father, Terry, would do if Trey told him Gouker had mistreated him.
“What he does is he calls [Child Protective Services] and it gets me and Amanda in a bunch of shit,” Gouker testified and as that thought had crossed his mind, he “just snapped” and punched Trey once in the face. The force of the punch spun Trey around and he fell to the ground, still clutching the metal pipe in his right hand. Gouker stepped on his wrist, pulling the pipe from Trey’s grasp and in a haze began to beat Trey with the pipe.6
In the aftermath of the beating, Gouker rinsed the pipe in the creek and traveled down the street to his cousin Cassi’s house where he took a shower. He stashed his clothes and the bloody pipe in Cassi’s backyard until the following morning. The family had failed to pay the garbage bill that month and he secreted the items in the garbage which he loaded into the trunk of Amanda’s car. Amanda and Gouker drove to McNeely Lake that morning and on the way Gouker disposed of the garbage bags containing the murder weapon in a dumpster behind a restaurant at the end of the street. Amanda remained unaware that the murder weapon used to kill her only son was in her car trunk.
Only hours after Gouker disposed of the murder weapon, police swarmed the scene of Trey’s murder. Both Gouker and Amanda arrived on the scene, Amanda anxious to learn what had happened and Gouker knowing that Trey’s body lay in that ditch and that he was the person who put him there. Despite the pressure of the situation, Gouker testified that he remained calm while he was questioned by police. He even laughed on the stand as he related how he told detectives that he would bet his life that the kids from the nearby apartments were to blame for the murder.
In the weeks that followed the crime, Gouker spoke with police several times. He testified that when he visited the police station to speak with Detective Russ, he did not think he would leave a free man; he felt it was just a matter of time until he was arrested. He could not believe that he was allowed to walk right out the front door after giving his statement.
As she continued to question Gouker, White pointed out the inconsistencies in his prior statements including the statement given to Detective Russ at the police station. She asked whether he remembered the various stories he told regarding his involvement in the murder and the events of the night of May 10, 2011, to which he repeatedly replied, “I don’t remember,” until he finally erupted, “I don’t deny nothin’ I’ve said. I’m a
fucking liar. You know what I mean?”7
In addition to being a self-professed liar, Gouker was also an abuser. He began to address his other crimes at the prodding of the prosecutor and he admitted to several instances of animal cruelty that occurred in the months leading up to Trey’s murder. When asked about the beating death of the black mixed-breed puppy that belonged to Trey, he flippantly responded, “It was just one whack. You all make it sound more sinister than it was. The thing shit on everything. It was broke. It was a broke dog.” He also admitted to killing a cat and throwing it away. Others from the neighborhood had already notified police detectives that he removed the eye of that cat and affixed it to a stick, approaching people in the neighborhood and saying, “I’ve got my eye on you.” Gouker detailed these sickening actions with no more emotion that a person describing his grocery list.8
As the testimony proceeded, the prosecutor questioned Gouker again regarding the various statements he gave to police during their investigation of Trey’s death. Prosecutors were obviously skeptical that Gouker had killed Trey and acted alone. It was important for the jury to hear that prior to his confession and guilty plea, Gouker initially blamed his son for the murder. While being held in Alabama, Gouker had requested a meeting with Detective Russ. He admitted that he told the detective that Little Josh confessed to hating Trey and that he resented Trey for telling on him and getting him into trouble.
Gouker originally told the detective that Little Josh had confessed to him that he killed Trey on the night of May 14 and had brought the bat with him from Cassi’s house. In this version, Gouker said that after luring Trey to “The Spot,” Little Josh asked him the time. Trey pulled his cell phone out of his pants pocket and checked the time and when he placed the phone back in his pocket, Little Josh hit him with the antique bat he took from Cassi’s. According to that Alabama statement, Little Josh couldn’t stop hitting Trey. When he ran out of energy, he put the bat in a landfill. He walked up the road to return to Cassi’s house. Little Josh didn’t cut through the yards as he usually would because he knew Gouker and Amanda were outside. Gouker stated he heard Little Josh tell his grandmother that he hated Trey and Little Josh told him that he slept just fine despite the killing.
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