CLARANCE ROZELL GOODE, JR. | First Degree Murder Charge for a 2005 Triple Homicide, including a 10-year-old girl | Sentenced to Death | XD: June 6, 2024 | ALS

Mr. Clarance Goode Jr. Autographed Letter, Signed. Boldly penned in blue ink, Commercial #10 (4.125 × 9.5 envelope). Tulsa, OK. Pmk: August 23, 2023. Content unknown. SEALED.

Clarance Goode Jr. (b. April 22, 1976 | age 47), Johnson and Thompson entered the Owasso, Oklahoma, home of Mitch Thompson and Tara Burchett-Thompson during the overnight hours of August 25–26, 2005. Tara’s ten-year-old Kayla, happened to be staying with her mother on this particular night, sleeping on a pallet next to the Thompsons’ bed. All three intruders were armed with handguns. The intruders entered the bedroom and killed the victims by firing several shots into each of the victims’ bodies.

The State’s theory of motive was that Ronald “Bunny” Thompson and Goode had been in a dispute with Mitch Thompson and his friend J.R. Hoffman for a few months. Hoffman was staying with Mitch Thompson and his family. Ronald Thompson, who was Mitch’s cousin, was living with Mitch’s sister, Michelle Chastain. Michelle Chastain was also one of Goode’s girlfriends, and Goode spends a great deal of time at her house.

This dispute escalated in July, 2005, when Hoffman borrowed a car from Michelle Chastain. Hoffman was to use the car to pickup some Xanax pills for Goode; however, Hoffman wrecked the car and was arrested for driving under the influence. Goode recovered the drugs from the car, but Hoffman refused to pay for the damage to the car. Toward the end of July, a month before these murders, Hoffman and Ronald Thompson got into a fight over their financial disputes. This fight ended and the parties separated for a short time.

Soon after, Mitch Thompson and Hoffman came back to Michelle’s house armed with a baseball bat. Goode and Ronald Thompson were at the house. Mitch Thompson beat Ronald with the baseball bat. Goode showed a pistol and made everyone go outside. He turned the gun over to someone else and started a fistfight with Hoffman.

After this, Mitch called the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS), child welfare division, and reported that Michelle, a single mother, had people living at the house who were selling drugs. DHS started a fraud investigation, and as a result, they scheduled a home inspection. Mitch also called Michelle’s employer and told them she was involved in drugs, and she was fired due to these reports. Evidence was introduced that Michelle threatened to kill her brother, because of his actions, but, at trial, she denied making the threats. Mitch also tried to get Goode fired from his job at Brookhaven Hospital by reporting that he was selling drugs.

On the evening before the murders, Goode picked up Ronald Thompson at his place of employment at about 10:00 p.m. Thompson testified that Goode arrived in a car driven by Kenneth “Fu Fu” Johnson. As they drove away, Goode told Ronald Thompson that they had business to take care of, and he handed Thompson a .22 caliber revolver and some latex gloves. Thompson said that Goode had a .357 caliber handgun and Johnson had a nine-millimeter handgun.

They drove to Mitch Thompson’s house, got out of the car, and entered the house through the open overhead garage door. Ronald said he kicked in the door from the garage into the house, because they told him to. Ronald said he thought they were there to scare Mitch.

According to Ronald, he went one way in the house and Goode and Johnson went the other. Ronald heard gunshots, so he went to the room occupied by Goode and Johnson. He said Johnson put a gun to his head and told him that he needed to put in some work or he was next, meaning he needed to fire some shots, or be shot. Ronald said he fired several shots into the wall of this room. They then left and dropped off the guns with another associate, Damos “Peanut” Joseph.

At about 4:15 a.m., Goode arrived at Michelle Chastain’s house. They argued and Goode told her that he just shot her “fucking brother . . . .” Goode introduced her to Johnson and said he was his cousin. She saw Ronald’s Walmart vest in Johnson’s car, but she did not see Ronald Thompson.

Michelle received formal notification of her brother’s death just after noon that day. Her father was also notified of the death of his son and suffered a heart attack after hearing the news. Michelle was at the hospital with her father when she first talked to detectives, but she did not volunteer any information about her knowledge of the shooting. During that day, Goode called Michelle Chastain asking if she had talked to the police and he threatened her and her family with harm, if she “made him nervous” by talking to the police.

Then, in the early morning hours of August 27, at about 1:00 a.m., Goode and Michelle Chastain were at Denny’s Restaurant. Chastain testified that Goode gave her the details of the killing by saying that Ronald Thompson kicked in the door. He said that Ronald was to go into the spare bedroom and kill Hoffman. Instead, Ronald followed Goode and Johnson into the main bedroom and started shooting the child, Kayla Burchett. Goode said he and Johnson had no choice but to shoot as well.

Goode told her that after the initial shots were fired, he heard some noise, so he turned the lights on. He saw Mitch on the floor next to the bed and told Mitch to look him in the face. Goode told Mitch that he should have “never snitched on me” and said, “die like a bitch.” Then Goode shot Mitch again. Goode told her that Johnson shot Tara Burchett-Thompson, and they would have shot Ronald Thompson, but he took off running.

Kayla was shot five times, once in the head, once in the back and three times in the hip. One of the hip wounds was noticeably smaller than the others, possibly coming from a .22 caliber bullet. Tara had ten gunshot wounds which could have been caused by less than ten shots, because of the paths of the bullets through different parts of the body. Mitch had been shot twice, once in the upper back and once in the face.

A total of seven .357 Sig4 casings and seven nine-millimeter casings were found in the bedroom. A .22 caliber projectile was found in a cabinet drawer. This cabinet was near small holes in the wall. A search of Damos Joseph’s house resulted in the recovery of two spent .22 magnum shells and a .22 magnum cartridge. These cartridges were consistent with the .22 caliber projectile found at the murder scene.

Goode’s mother and his brother’s fiancé testified that Goode was at the mother’s home the evening of the murders. The fiancé, Ruby Gilyard, said Goode left for a period of time, but returned at 11:00 p.m. She could not say whether he stayed the night; however, she did see him the next morning when she woke up. Mrs. Goode testified that he spent the night, because they were traveling to visit Goode’s incarcerated brother the next day.ⁱ

Archiving Protocol:

• Handled with White Gloves ab initio

• Photo Pages/Sheet Protectors: Heavyweight Clear Sheet Protectors, Acid Free & Archival Safe, 8.5 × 11, Top Load

• White Backing Board—Acid Free

Shipping/Packaging: Rigid Mailer 9.5 × 12.5. White, self seal, stay flat, kraft cardboard, no bend. Each rigid mailer is made of heavy cardboard, which has strong resistance to bending and tearing. Thicker that the USPS mailers. Shipping cost never more than it absolutely has to be to get it from me to you.