A former Louisville detective will plead guilty to federal charges in the 2020 fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, her attorney said Friday at an online court hearing.
Former detective Kelly Goodlett, who was charged with helping to falsify a search warrant and trying to cover it up, is expected to plead guilty in front of U.S. District Judge David Hall on Aug. 22, her lawyer Brandon Marshall told Judge Regina Edwards in the United States District Court of the Western District of Kentucky, according to the Washington Post. An attorney representing the Department of Justice also confirmed the plea deal during the hearing.
FOUR OFFICERS CHARGED IN CONNECTION TO BREONNA TAYLOR’S DEATH
Goodlett, who was released on a $10,000 bond, is expected to testify against three other officers who were also charged in connection with Taylor’s death. She faces a maximum sentence of five years and a $250,000 fine.
The other officers, Sgt. Kyle Meany, former detective Joshua Jaynes, and former detective Brett Hankison, were indicted on more serious charges that could result in life sentences if convicted. All three men have pleaded not guilty, according to court records.
The falsified documents included a false claim that a postal inspector had verified Taylor was receiving packages at her apartment for her ex-boyfriend, convicted drug dealer Jamarcus Glover, before plainclothes police officers stormed in to carry out a drug-related search warrant, according to the charging documents. The postal inspector has denied the claim, according to the documents, and records show no drugs or money were found in the apartment.
Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a shot at the officers he said he believed were intruders, injuring Sgt. John Mattingly in the leg. He and another detective, Myles Cosgrove, returned fire, which resulted in the death of Taylor. Mattingly and Cosgrove were not charged last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland said, because they did not know the information in the warrant was false.
“The officers who ultimately carried out the search at Taylor’s apartment were not involved in the drafting of the warrant and were unaware of the false and misleading statements that it contained,” Garland said, according to the Courier-Journal.
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Taylor’s death at the age of 26 prompted outrage in Louisville, shortly before the death of George Floyd, who was killed when a police officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck in Minneapolis despite Floyd’s cries that he could not breathe. Taylor’s and Floyd’s deaths fueled a summer of protests against police brutality and racism, which included calls to “defund the police.”
