Accused

by Brittany Ducker

  Little Josh nodded his understanding and sat alone in the chilly room, wondering how he had gotten to this place in his life. He had always had trouble showing his feelings. He’d learned a long time ago that getting emotional often made things worse but, as he sat there thinking about Trey and his mom and all the bad things that happened in his life, he couldn’t hold back his tears.8

  Shortly after his interview with Little Josh, Detective Russ received an unexpected call from a police officer in Alabama. The Alabama detective advised Russ that after Joshua Gouker’s arrest, Gouker had indicated that he had information regarding Trey’s death and that he wanted to speak with the Louisville authorities so he could disclose the information. The Alabama detective believed the information could be important to the Louisville police and he placed the call immediately after speaking with Gouker.

  It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when Detectives Russ and Stalvey sat down to make a call to Gouker at the Alabama jail that housed him. Russ set up the recorder as Gouker came onto the line. “Can you hear me?” the detective asked when he heard Gouker breathing through the phone.

  “Yeah,” Gouker spoke into the receiver.

  Detective Russ got right to business: “All right, I know you want to talk to me in person; that may probably happen. I may be coming down there.”

  Both detectives strained to listen to the man on the other end of the line as he sharply exhaled and begin to unload. “Got to ’cause I don’t want to do it over the phone, man, and I think you already know what’s up,” Gouker’s voice cracked as he began sobbing through the phone. “This is so hard, man.”9

  The detectives looked at each other, raising their eyebrows. This could be the big break to get the answers they were waiting for in the Trey Zwicker investigation. Detective Russ began speaking. “I mean, you’ve got to give me a little something, so I don’t drive down there twelve hours for nothing. It’s just me and you. There’s another detective here with me. Just give me a little bit of something so I know what I am coming down there for. Make sure it’s not a wasted drive?”

  On the phone, Gouker continued to sob. “I can solve your case; it’s about Trey.” Gouker’s voice trailed off as he waited for the officer to respond.

  “So if I drive down there, you are going to give me some information that’s going to help me, right?

  “But I want to be the one to tell Amanda…”

  “Yeah, but I mean you and me, face to face. You’re gonna spill it all out and tell me what happened, how things happened and what you know—what you heard—what you saw—everything?”

  “I know everything. I’ve been carrying it with me, man.”

  “All right. Well, we may not be able to get down there until the morning ’cause it’s like a twelve hour drive or some shit,” the detective responded.

  “It ain’t gotta be right now,” said Gouker.

  “I know you’re not going anywhere, but we wanna get this done as quick as we can.”

  “Uh, look, man, I want to—I’ll set and talk to you—just get here.”

  Detective Russ took a deep breath. After almost two months had passed, Russ was determined to find out what had happened to Trey Zwicker. “Okay. Let me just ask you this real quick, but I want to make sure that I’m coming down there for the right reason.”

  Gouker burst in, “You know the answers, man. You know who it is.” The silence hung in the air. Gouker seemed set on revealing what he wanted the detectives to think.

  Detective Russ then took it a step further. “Are we talking about—” he began and then paused, thinking. “Are we talking about your son?” He listened through the receiver as Gouker cried on the other end of the phone line. “Just a quick yes or no. That’s all I want to know and then I’ll be in my car driving down there.”

  “Yeah,” Gouker sobbed and with that utterance he started a snowball that would ultimately grow and grow.10

  Photos courtesy of Joshua Young

  Angie and Little Josh outside karate class

  Angelina Young and her son, Joshua

  Photo courtesy of Joshua Young

  Joshua Gouker and Little Josh, age 11, during a prison visit

  Photos courtesy of Louisville and Kentucky Departments of Corrections

  Big Josh Gouker’s mug shots over the years

  Photos courtesy of Brittany Ducker

  Students from Liberty High School discovered Trey Zwicker’s body in a muddy drainage ditch behind the school building.

  The graffiti-covered entrance to the culvert, known locally as “The Spot,” near where the body was found

  Looking back toward the school from the road where a crowd gathered following the discovery of Trey’s body

  Building photos courtesy of Brittany Ducker

  Gouker spent many years incarcerated in Louisville Metro Corrections for a variety of offenses

  Photo extracted from trial video

  Josh Young during a preliminary court proceeding

  The county courthouse where Big and Little Josh were tried separately for Trey Zwicker’s murder

  Photos extracted from trial video

  Judge Barry Willett presided over both Joshua Gouker’s and Josh Young’s cases.

  Prosecutor Erin White delivered the opening argument.

  Prosecutor Elizabeth Jones Brown established the timeline for the murder and subsequent investigation.

  Gouker seemed to relish his appearances on the witness stand.

  Amanda McFarland, the murdered boy’s mother, testified for the prosecution.

  Dr. George Nichols’s testimony about the murder weapon helped the defense.

  Josh Young awaited the verdict with his defense team, from left: co-counsel Pete Schuler, Joshua’s social worker, Josh, co-counsel Leslie Smith.

  Josh Young and Leslie Smith listened intently as Judge Willett read the verdict.

  Chapter 10

  Master Manipulator

  The two detectives wasted no time advising their superiors that they planned to travel to Alabama to speak with Joshua Gouker in person. They would not be satisfied until he looked them in the eyes as he implicated his own son. They knew they would be better able to gauge his credibility if they could study his body language as he spoke.

  The next day, June 22, Detectives Russ and Stalvey sat down with Gouker at the Alabama jail. Gouker immediately set out his agenda. His number one request was that he needed to be the one to tell Amanda about his claim that Josh was responsible for Trey’s death. Gouker was by now aware that the emergency protection order sought by Amanda precluded any contact between the two. However, he was desperate to talk to her. His request to speak with his wife was very transparent. He seemed to want to torture her further by finding a way to come face to face with her.

  Once assured of that, Gouker got right to the point. He stated that he first became suspicious of his son “by the way he talked to Amanda” after the murder. Gouker did not elaborate on this alleged behavior. Instead, he stated that he later confronted Little Josh and told him that he would be there for him but that Josh needed to tell him everything he knew.1

  He alleged that Little Josh said that he asked Trey to go “vandalizing” with him and that they first went to “The Spot” to smoke marijuana. He claimed that Trey had an old wooden bat with him. According to Gouker, Little Josh asked Trey for the time and when Trey pulled his phone from his pocket to check, Josh took the bat and hit him with it. After Trey fell, Gouker said Little Josh continued to beat him with the bat and that he couldn’t stop. The story rolled off Gouker’s tongue as he watched the detectives soak up every word. He claimed that Josh confessed everything to him the Saturday after Trey’s death.

  Gouker alleged that he convinced his son to confess to him by promising not to tell. He told Little Josh that the police were looking at him and that if Little Josh knew anything that could help him, he needed to say it. He told the officers that he rolled a blunt and sat down with his son to smoke it and the
truth came out.

  As he watched the detectives, Gouker took a deep breath and continued telling his story, “Yeah, well we done been smoking and shit and I’m freaking out, man, because (the media) is trying to get this whole city thinking I’m a child killer, you know. I’m an easy victim for this, man, ’cause I got a violent past. Everybody on the fucking street hates me anyway. They’re just whores that don’t want to say nothing.”2

  Gouker placed his head in his hands, portraying the image of a shocked and sickened man, “My son didn’t feel nothing. He didn’t feel shit, man. Oh my God, when he told me that, man, I just wish I could’ve taken it outta my head. I knew they was gonna get him, man; they was gonna take him from me, probably forever. This shit is all fucked up, you know, and I can’t, I can’t, I don’t know what the fuck to do.”

  Gouker continued painting a wild story for the detectives. He claimed that he made the decision to flee Kentucky with his son the Saturday before they left. By that time he was worried, because he claimed that Little Josh had confessed to him and Gouker felt the police were suspicious of his son. He told his mother, Ruby, that Josh was guilty of the murder on that Saturday when she rented a room at a motel near the Watterson Expressway in Louisville. He described a day of lounging at the motel pool, drinking and smoking to settle his frazzled nerves.

  Gouker alleged he informed Josh later in the evening that Ruby knew everything and that she asked Little Josh why he would do such a thing. Gouker claimed that Little Josh’s response was that he hated Trey and that his demeanor was “just so cold and callous, you know.”

  The detectives listened closely and, as the interview progressed, they decided it would be fruitful for Gouker to call the people to whom he alleged Little Josh had made a confession. Gouker revealed in his story that his ex-girlfriend, Angelic Burkhead, Jahaira Riddle, his cousin Cassi, his mother and Cassi’s boyfriend all heard his son’s confession.

  As the detectives stopped for a short break, Gouker alluded to the fact that someone else might be involved in the killing, that he knew the identity of the person who he alleged took his son to dispose of the murder weapon. He dangled that piece of information in front of them like a carrot to a rabbit.

  Because Gouker claimed to know a person who had contributed to disposing of evidence in Trey’s death, the detectives then called the Assistant Commonwealth Attorney, prior to ascertaining the person’s identity or any other information about the person and were able to secure immunity for the person to whom Gouker referred. This meant that as long as that person was completely truthful, he or she could not be charged with a crime or prosecuted.

  Detectives were willing to let Gouker call the various witnesses that he alleged heard his son confess. Gouker told the detectives that he needed to phone the people personally. He contended that none of the people he mentioned would speak with the detectives unless Gouker gave them express permission. At first, the detectives seemed skeptical that the alleged witnesses would not cooperate without Gouker’s permission. But Gouker was emphatic that these people were so loyal to him that they would not even think about speaking with police without Gouker’s explicit authorization.

  Gouker attempted to explain his control over these people to the detectives: “You gotta understand, they’re not going to tell you nothing unless I tell ’em. I promise you.” He was confident in this statement. As it turns out, he was 100 percent correct.

  Detective Stalvey stepped in, seemingly disturbed that Gouker expected to play such an integral role in the investigation, “But just understand, we can’t just run an investigation based on you doing everything. If I went out there right now without you, there’s gotta be something that’s gonna make them say ‘Oh shit, well, I better go ahead and be straight. What would it be?’”

  Gouker leaned back, arms crossed and smug. “Ratting on Josh Gouker’s son, it’s not an option,” he stated matter-of-factly.3

  “Unless Josh Gouker says talk?” Detective Russ looked assessingly at him.

  “I’m not trying to be a hard ass, but I’m telling you, it’s not an option. They’re not gonna do it.” Gouker was nothing if not completely confident and was unrelenting in his assertion that his cohorts would not speak with the detectives unless Gouker called them himself.

  Detective Stalvey sighed, “Okay, well, I’ve heard that before.”

  “I promise you, that’s the truth,” Gouker stated. He knew that he controlled all the women in his life through fear and a perverted sense of loyalty.

  To prove that he knew more about Trey Zwicker’s murder than detectives, he divulged the name of the person he claimed helped to dispose of the murder weapon. He declared that after Trey’s murder, Little Josh asked Gouker’s cousin Cassi to help him dispose of the bloody clothes and the bloody bat he alleged the killer used to murder Trey. Gouker claimed that when he learned that Cassi kept that secret from him for four days, he erupted, telling her, “Your loyalty lies with me and not my son!”

  He wanted to help, he implored them, and he hoped that they would look past his criminal history to see that. Gouker puffed up, chest out and head high, “You know, my character can’t be restored for the shit I did in the past. I’m not gonna be a model citizen to any motherfucker that’s known me. What I am is the leader of a gang, a very violent motherfucker. That doesn’t argue, you know.”

  With that sentiment in mind, it was almost two in the morning when the detectives allowed Gouker to call Cassi so that they could hear her version of what happened after Trey’s murder. When she didn’t answer, they tried Gouker’s mother, Ruby. Gouker jumped right in and began speaking with his mother, “Hey, I’m in, I’m up in Madison right now.”4

  “Okay…” Ruby replied slowly. She must have been curious about the reason for her son’s late night call.

  “Where they got me in that kidnapping case. It’s, it’s bullshit though. I’m end up beating that.”

  “Alright, good.”

  “Hey, listen, umm, Louisville Homicide detectives are here and they know everything,” Gouker sobbed through the phone to his mother, his heaving breaths echoing through the receiver.

  After a moment of silence she questioned, “What do you mean?”

  “About Trey.”

  “What about him?”

  “What happened to him.”

  Ruby was not taking the bait. She tentatively continued, “Like what?”

  “What happened, Mom. The whole thing; they know everything.”

  Detective Russ interjected and began to speak to Gouker, “Tell her I’m sitting here and just tell her to tell me what she knows and she’s not going to be in any trouble.”

  “Who do they think done it?” Ruby asked, addressing her son.

  “They know who did it, Mom,” Gouker emphasized.

  Once again, Detective Russ jumped in. “Let me talk. Can I talk?” he asked, attempting to take control away from Gouker. Only a few minutes into the telephone call, Gouker already seemed to be leading his mother’s questioning. It seemed clear that he wanted and needed to control every aspect of the detectives’ investigation. He signed heavily as he reluctantly allowed Russ to momentarily take over the conversation.

  “Hey, Ruby. This is Detective Russ from Louisville. I’m down here in Alabama with Josh, okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So we know everything.”

  “What is everything?” she asked again, anxious for an answer to the question she had posed several times in the short conversation.

  “Well, listen to me for a minute. No matter what you tell me, you’re not in any trouble for just having information, okay. But I need you to tell me what Josh Young told you. You’re not in trouble; you’re not going to be charged. You’re not going to jail, none of that stuff. All you are is an informational witness, ’cause you heard somebody tell you something and I need to know what he told you.”

  Ruby paused, seemingly confused. “Big Josh or Little Josh?” she asked.

  “Littl
e Josh,” Scott Russ emphatically stated, “about the motel, when you all were there?”

  “I didn’t believe him.”

  “Okay, well tell me what he told you,” the detective prodded.

  “He just told me that he didn’t care for Trey.”

  “Mom!” Gouker exclaimed, apparently upset that his mother was not saying what he wanted her to say.

  “What?” she barked back.

  “Everybody’s told ’em everything. Do you get that?”

  “Tell me what Little Josh said,” the detective pressed.

  Ruby was nonchalant in her response. It was clear that she did not want to commit to Big Josh’s revelation. She didn’t believe it. “He told me that Trey got him in trouble and stuff all the time and he couldn’t stand him. Umm, I know Trey was bigger than Little Josh and he said something about hitting him…That makes me know he didn’t do it.”

  Ruby clearly was not saying what Gouker wanted her to say and he was becoming upset as he listened. “Mom, they’re gonna end up trying to get you, man and throw you in prison. Just tell ’em the fucking truth!” he threatened in a raised voice in an attempt to coerce his mother into implicating Little Josh.

  “I am telling the truth. That’s when you told me that Little Josh had done it!”

  Ruby continued to speak with the detective and her son about Gouker’s actions in implicating his son in Trey’s murder. She continued to vehemently deny that her grandson was involved in Trey’s death. Instead, she emphasized that Gouker was in trouble when they were at the motel and spoke about Trey’s murder. Prior to fleeing the state, he had received papers regarding the emergency protective order sought by Amanda and he knew it was likely that his parole would be revoked and that he would return to prison. Ruby told the detective that she would never have allowed Gouker to run with the child unless she thought they were in serious trouble. She did not believe that Little Josh was involved in Trey’s murder, though she did eventually say that Little Josh told her he hit Trey with a baseball bat. Instead, she felt that her son had convinced Little Josh to go along with his plan of making Ruby believe that they could somehow be involved in the murder so that she would agree with the decision to flee.