Convicted killer: Justice ‘has failed me’

Tuesday, May 4, 2004 | 10:10 a.m.

A 27-year-old man convicted of beating and shooting two young men to death insisted he was innocent during his sentencing Monday, telling District Judge Kathy Hardcastle that the justice system "has failed me."

The courts and police "have taken the best years of my life and are about to take everything I have left from me ... for a charge I'm not guilty of," Ralph Eugene Goodman III said Monday morning. "May God have mercy on their souls."

Goodman, whom Hardcastle sentenced to four life sentences without parole for the August 2000 shooting deaths of David Bender, 21, and Steven Szany, 22, expressed sympathy for the victims' families.

But the victims' families testified that what they wanted from Goodman was not sympathy but for him to take responsibility for what he had done.

"You are the one responsible here, don't blame the courts," Bender's mother, Eulalia Gore, told Goodman.

Gore told Goodman she forgave him for what he had done and urged him to "ask Jesus for forgiveness."

"Even incarcerated you can make a difference," Gore said, telling Goodman to use his time in prison to learn. "Be constructive so that a third life, yours, will not be wasted. God bless you."

David Bender's two sisters and Szany's mother were not as forgiving as they testified about the hurt and the pain they have felt since losing their loved ones.

"There's just not enough words to say what it is like to hold my niece and know my brother will never hold his niece," Collette Bender testified. "It's like a million paper cuts. It hurts terribly in a different way every day."

Anita Szany expressed similar feelings.

"He has ruined so many lives by taking Stevie away from us," Anita Szany testified, noting that everything in her life is marred by the loss of her son.

"We can't enjoy holidays ever again."

Goodman agreed to be sentenced to life without parole in order to avoid the death penalty after a jury convicted him in March, Special Public Defender Gloria Navarro said. He received a life sentence for each man's death with equal and consecutive life sentences for the use of a deadly weapon.

Goodman's codefendant, Stephen Ciolino, 34, is scheduled for trial on June 28 and faces the death penalty if convicted.