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Child killer who beat 3-year-old boy to death paroled in CA – Gov. Newsom last roadblock to freedom

January 28, 2024 | | Print Article

A San Francisco man who beat his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son to death has been paroled despite being sentenced to 25 to life, and the only one now capable of stopping his release is California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

According to San Francisco Public Safety News, convict Patrick Goodman, now 49, killed his girlfriend’s three-year-old son, Eli­jah Sander­son, on De­cem­ber 6, 2000 at their In­gle­side home.

“The au­topsy re­port de­tailed in­juries rang­ing from a bro­ken neck and bro­ken ribs to a sev­ered bowel and a sev­ered re­nal artery. 50 sep­a­rate ex­ter­nal in­juries were also noted,” the local news outlet notes.

The 50 separate external injuries “re­sulted in cat­a­strophic in­ter­nal bleed­ing and rup­ture across the spleen, pan­creas, bowel, kid­neys and di­aphragm.”

“His liver was pul­ver­ized. They also caused mus­cu­lar-skele­tal in­juries in­clud­ing a bro­ken neck and bro­ken ribs,” according to San Francisco Public Safety News.

Good­man later ad­mit­ted that he’d killed the boy in a fit of rage be­cause the child had let the family dog inside the house.

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Two years later in 2002, Goodman was convicted of second-degree murder and child abuse and sentenced to 25 years to life.

Fast-forward to Dec. 14th of last year, when, during a parole hearing, a representative for San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins argued that Goodman needs to remain behind bars.

“His mur­der robbed a baby child of a fourth birth­day,” As­sis­tant Dis­trict At­tor­ney Vic­to­ria Mur­ray-Bal­doc­chi said. “Learn­ing how to shave, his first kiss, of go­ing to col­lege, of mak­ing cards for his mother on Moth­er’s Day, cel­e­brat­ing his sib­lings’ birth­days.”

“I sug­gest he is still in de­nial as to how bru­tal his mur­der was of this tiny lit­tle in­no­cent hu­man,” she added.

But her plea fell on deaf ears, and Board of Parole Hearings pre­sid­ing com­mis­sioner Michele Mi­nor and deputy com­mis­sioner Dan Blake decided to grant Goldman parole.

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“We find that Mr. Good­man does not cur­rently pose an un­rea­son­able risk to pub­lic safety and is there­fore suit­able for pa­role,” Minor said.

To her credit, Jenkins, who’s demonstrated she’s not a soft-on crime prosecutor, cried foul.

“We are talking about the murder of an innocent and vulnerable 3-year-old child in [a] brutal fashion,” she told local station KRON.

“We have to be advocates for public safety and we have to make sure that people one, serve the time that they were sentenced to, but then also that when it’s time for them to integrate back into the public, that they are ready to do so and to be productive members of society,” she continued.

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“And right now, we do not have faith and trust that this individual is ready for that at this time. And that again, he poses a significant public safety risk,” she added.

According to KRON, Jenkins’ office is now in the process of drafting a letter to Newsom asking him to overturn the parole board’s widely panned decision.

Speaking with Fox News, former San Francisco Police officer Britt Elmore said he’s confident Newsom will overrule the board but believes the governor should take a step further and launch an investigation into the board itself.

“See if they’re even fit to be in these hearings,” he said. “This is the worst of the worst, and this is supposed to be what the strictest of our laws are for.”

Jonathan Hatami, a district attorney candidate in Los Angeles County, concurred, telling Fox News that the board’s decision was “horrific.”

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“I’ve tried numerous high-profile child murders,” he said. “If you will murder a child, someone who is the most vulnerable in our society, you are a danger to our entire community. Someone who will murder a child has the capability to murder anyone. Child murderers pose a serious danger to our community. Period.”

Members of the public agree and have begun petitioning Newsom to intervene:

Vivek Saxena
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