NORTH HAVERHILL – Brooke Goodrich made her mother, Becky Springer, a promise: she’d see her in December. In a 2021 letter, she said she’ll always love her despite not always seeing eye to eye.
“You broke Brooke’s promise to me,” Springer said, clutching Brooke’s urn at the courtroom podium.
Her nephew, Lance Goodrich, sat at the defendant’s table, his eyes looking down.
In May, a jury found Goodrich guilty of second degree murder for the shooting death of his cousin.
It took them as many hours as years the case was pending to bring in the verdict: four and a half. He was found not guilty of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole.
On Monday afternoon in Grafton Superior Court, Goodrich, 40, was sentenced to 35 years to life.
Brooke Goodrich was shot and killed at her home in Orford on Nov. 20, 2021. She was 25 years old and pursuing a career in veterinary medicine.
“My family will never experience her having a marriage, children or seeing her thrive in life,” Becky Springer said in her impact statement. “She had her whole life ahead of her.”
She said she believed it was the jealousy of her nephew’s then-wife Melina toward Brooke that caused their martial issues, and ultimately, the murder of her daughter.
“Melina Goodrich shot Brooke. Melina Goodrich shot Brooke,” Lance Goodrich’s Defense Attorney Mark Sisti repeated to the court at trial, arguing that it wasn’t his client who pulled the trigger, but his wife, Melina Goodrich.
Lance Goodrich, a resident of Lyme, made multiple admissions to police, family and friends to the killing of Brooke, who he said he shot because she was “running her mouth.”
But Lance loved his wife, Melina, so badly he covered up her murder of his cousin, Brooke, according to Defense Attorney Mark Sisti.
According to Assistant Attorney General Bethany Durand, Lance Goodrich didn’t take the blame for his wife, Melina, in the murder of his cousin; he blamed Brooke for the failure of his marriage and shot her in the head the day Melina left him.
Lifeless, Brooke was still clutching her makeup brush when police found her.
The jury, in the end, found that the state met its burden of proof on the second-degree murder charge, but not that the killing was premeditated.
“To whom much is given, much is expected,” Assistant Attorney General Bethany Durand said at Goodrich’s sentencing hearing on Monday. “Lance Goodrich had the support of everybody that he needed.”
The hearing was attended by a couple dozen, around eight being supporters of Goodrich.
“But on that day, he chose to execute Brooke to handle his marital problems,” Durand said.
The state sought a sentence of 45 years to life, an extreme recommendation, according to the defense.
Sisti was seeking a sentence of 25 to life. Lance Goodrich had no prior criminal record in New Hampshire, was a hard-working member of the community and a devoted father to his children, Sisti said.
“We heard in this case … a charge that we maintain was an overcharge and that the jury, in fact, rejected when it was presented with an urging from the state to convict on a first-degree murder,” Sisti said.
Disputing the state’s presentation, in which Durand stated that the killing was “planned,” Sisti said the events of Nov. 20, 2021, were instead “totally unpredictable.”
“Hours before (Brooke Goodrich’s) death, they were delivering puppies together,” he said. “There was no ill will. There was no history of a threat. This is, in the true sense, a true definition of what aberrant behavior is.”
After a roughly 20-minute recess, Judge Lawrence MacLeod returned with a sentence.
In his review, MacLeod, who presided over the trial, weighed both the mitigating and aggravating factors.
“(Goodrich) was a supporting and loving family member, particularly to his children, but also to his neighbors, to his employers and to others,” he said, also noting his lack of criminal past in the state.
Factoring deterrence into his thinking, MacLeod said that while Goodrich had been an “apparently peaceable person” before the murder, “once you’ve done something once, it’s easy to do it again.”
“This is a case that requires a significant punishment,” he said. “It was a cruel act, completely unjustified, of a completely innocent victim.”
The court sentenced Goodrich to 35 years to life, with 1,700 days of pretrial confinement credit. Goodrich was also ordered to pay over $11,000 to the Department of Corrections’ Victims Compensation Fund. His sentence further stipulates that he is prohibited from profiting through “book, film, television show, radio show, website, podcast, or any other writing, recording, broadcast, or internet posting relating to the murder of Brooke Goodrich.”
“The sentence was well-reasoned,” Sisti told the Valley News after the hearing. “I’m glad that the court rejected the state’s extreme number that didn’t have any support behind it. And I’m still appreciative of the jury rejecting the first-degree murder charge.”
Sisti said he intends to appeal the verdict, which has to be filed within 30 days of the sentencing.
“(The judge’s) approach was very well reasoned and we accept his determination,” Assistant Attorney General Bethany Durand said after the hearing. “There’s absolutely no sentence that any court could give that’ll bring Brooke Goodrich back to her family.”
Before standing up to the man convicted of killing her daughter, her own nephew, Becky Springer was trembling in her seat. Walking back from the podium to the side of the courtroom where six other members of Brooke’s side of the family were sitting, she confidently pumped her fist.
“I did it,” she said after reading her impact statement.
Lance Goodrich, when given a chance to speak by the court, declined.
