Woman pleads guilty in carjacking case

Bill Gang

Wednesday, Nov. 24, 1999 | 9:34 a.m.

A 19-year-old woman quietly admitted in court that she had driven two shotgun-toting friends to a sedate Summerlin neighborhood where she knew they were going to commit a carjacking and robbery.

Jamie Lyn Aghas pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of voluntary manslaughter, conspiracy and robbery for her role in the Aug. 13 incident that left two people dead -- one of the alleged robbers and an uninvolved motorcyclist who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The second alleged robber, Randy Dean Goodrick, 19, is scheduled to stand trial Feb. 22 in District Judge Michael Douglas's courtroom.

Aghas, who was the girlfriend of the 20-year-old alleged robber killed during the high-speed collision, is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 29 and could receive a maximum of 12 to 30 years in prison. Probation, however, is also a possibility.

Aghas already had driven off in her own car before Goodrick and Jeremy Butler sped through an intersection on West Charleston Boulevard at about 80 mph and hit the motorcycle ridden by Phillip Gastineau, 41.

The carjacked BMW then hit a lightpole, killing Butler and injuring Goodrick.

Although Aghas was not present when the deaths occurred, Deputy District Attorney David Schwartz said she still was legally responsible for the outcome of the events she had helped set into motion.

Schwartz said that had Aghas gone to trial she could have been convicted of first-degree murder because the deaths occurred as part of a robbery.

But the veteran prosecutor said his office agreed to let her plead guilty to the voluntary manslaughter charge -- although the definition does not fit the crime -- so she doesn't face the mandatory life prison sentence for murder.

Charges against Goodrick allege that he and Butler tried to use a shotgun to rob a man in a BMW, who they had followed into his gated community in the far western area of the valley. Aghas admitted she was the driver of the car that pursued the victim.

Police say that during the robbery the victim grabbed the weapon and shot Butler and Goodrick, although the pair still managed to steal the car.

It was only a matter of minutes before the stolen BMW raced through a red light at the intersection of Charleston Boulevard and Hualapai Way and hit the motorcycle.