COURTLAND, Va. (WAVY) — A Southampton County Circuit Court jury found a man guilty of first-degree murder Tuesday in the 2019 stabbing death of Cynthia Carver.
The evidence pointed to James Goodwyn, Jr., 44 from the beginning. His defense attorney had a completely alternative theory of what happened, but the jury went with the evidence.
Carver went missing from her home on Everett Street in Newsoms in February 2019. Her body was found four weeks later near a logging trail in a wooded marshy area in Suffolk. Goodwyn Jr. was arrested three months later at his girlfriend’s home in Virginia Beach.
Investigators developed evidence from DNA, phone records and bloody shoe prints inside Carver’s home.
Ann Carver has had to sit through six years of uncertainty and pain after the loss of her daughter Cynthia, and Cynthia’s daughters — now both teenagers — have had that same heartache as well.
Ann Carver had come to her daughter’s home back on Feb. 22, 2019. Her car was there but where was Cynthia? She went missing for about a month, and federal, state and local authorities combined in the search — until the family got the shocking news from Suffolk. Cynthia Carver’s body with half a dozen stab wounds was found next to a logging trail off Gates Road.
Missing from Carver’s middle finger on her right hand was an acrylic fingernail. Investigators had already recovered it from her living room floor with Goodwyn’s DNA on it. Her hands had defensive slash wounds.
Her bloody shirt was found in her Newsoms driveway. The prosecution theorized that it came off as she was dragged from her home into Goodwyn’s vehicle. It had stab holes in the chest.
The discovery of Carver’s body came thanks to an attentive dog. An employee of Franklin Lumber was on his way to North Carolina in March 2019 with his two dogs in the vehicle. His short-haired pointer began acting strangely, and the man stopped to let him out. The dog ran to a logging trail with a locked gate. The dog then ran about 20 yards down the logging road, stopped, and “pointed” into a swampy area of trees and brush, where Carver was face down.
Her body had stab wounds to the neck, jaw, chest and vaginal area. Clothed only in a bra, her underwear dangled from one ankle. Leggings were lying nearby. But authorities did not charge the case as a sex crime.
The jury saw the murder weapon — a serrated edge cutlery knife with a blade about five inches long and a wooden handle. “There’s a knife, it has blood all over it,” a detective was heard saying on his body cam video, from the day law enforcement first responded to the Everett Street home.
Goodwyn, a man Carver knew and who had met her children, was arrested in June, 2019 and charged with first-degree murder. It wouldn’t be until Tuesday morning – six years later – that a Southampton County jury would convict Goodwyn on that charge.
Asked about her reaction to the murder conviction, Ann Carver said outside the courthouse, “I was happy. I can’t get my daughter back but I was glad with the verdict.”
The long wait has affected the entire family, including the two daughters whom Cynthia Carver was raising.
“They miss their mom, but they’re doing fine,” Carver said. “I’m blessed, I got my family with me, so I’m thankful.”
Defense Attorney Jim Ellenson tried to convince the jury that another man Carver had been in a relationship with was the real killer.
Dominic Hockaday was a married man from North Carolina, and testified during the trial as a Commonwealth witness, but was recalled as a defense witness. In Carver’s home in February 2019 – amidst the blood, stained towels, and sliced sofa pillow she used to defend herself – was a Valentine’s Day gift for Hockaday, some new clothing and a UNC Tar Heels cap. Carver and Hockaday had had sex the day before she was killed.
Goodwyn’s defense attorney James Ellenson tried to pin the killing on Hockaday, who revealed the affair to his wife just last week. Ellenson advised Goodwyn not to testify and he did not.
The jury deliberated for more than two hours Monday afternoon, but did not come to a verdict. Judge Wayne Farmer had instructed them to consider second-degree murder as an option.
The jury resumed deliberations Tuesday morning, and by 11 a.m. they came back with a guilty verdict on the more serious charge of first degree murder. Goodwyn has been in jail since his arrest nearly six years ago.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Cooke said he was gratified with the guilty verdict, and thanked the investigators for their work.
Ellenson says he will appeal. Goodwyn is scheduled for sentencing July 1. He faces from 20 years to life in prison.
