ken_sylvania wrote:To what lengths would you be willing to go in order to attempt to save the life of a family member? I don't defend Samuel's conduct, but is there a chance this was the result of a desperate attempt to help [a close relative] avoid the death sentence? There must be a background that would help to make more sense out of this setup. I would certainly hope so, although I'm not sure what purpose was served by creating a setup to entice this person to try to interfere with the investigation. Maybe just to keep him out of mischief?
Better question is: Are you willing to commit crimes yourself to aid in the cover-up of a brutal kidnapping and murder? To make yourself complicit in that crime?
The death penalty is sort of a red herring. Arizona hasn't executed anyone since 2014 and most defendants can take the death penalty off the table themselves if they are willing to plead.
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A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
mike wrote:So the authorities already had the gun. Why did they use a bogus weapon to entrap this person?
It appears law enforcement already suspected him. After Mark was arrested the authorities said that they weren't ruling out other people being involved. It looks like they were just waiting for Sam to make a move.
Samuel Gooch made arrangements over the phone to fly from Wisconsin to Arizona get the gun he believed was used in the killing, the Coconino County Sheriff's Office said.
“Through the investigation, we believed it was his intention to come and get possession of that weapon and possibly destroy it,” said sheriff's spokesman Jon Paxton.
Authorities had collected the rifle from the home of one of Mark Gooch's friends and placed a nearly identical weapon at the home and waited for Samuel Gooch to pick it up before arresting him, Paxton said.
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No half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly. --J.R.R. Tolkien
When you can't run, you crawl, and when you can't crawl - when you can't do that...you find someone to carry you. --Firefly
Something clearly went haywire for these kids to cause such sociopathic behaviour. And you fact this was arranged by Mark from jail shows clearly there is no remorse. Complete lack of empathy. Some thing really went wrong.
"Through the investigation, we believed it was his intention to come and get possession of that weapon and possibly destroy it"
They "believe" and "possibly", sounds pretty weak at this point. If Sam Gooch did know more, they will get it out of him. Nevertheless Sam Gooch should have refused to have any parts of the gun.
I feel sorry for the parents and siblings of Mark.
ken_sylvania wrote:I pity the parents. This has got to be terribly painful.
Its really easy to think "well, they're adults. They made their bed, now sleep in it!"
But as a parent, who did all the right things in child raising, only to be forced to remain idle as those efforts fall apart before them. Pure torture. Unfortunately, I think there are a few of us here that can relate to this.
Judas Maccabeus wrote:anyone know what the relationship is?
You mean the relationship between Sam and Mark? They're brothers.
Older or younger? Surely not the one who was in the same school as Sasha....
It was reportedly a different brother who went to bible school with Sasha.
Sam is older than Mark. According to a church directory Mark is the youngest and Sam is the second to youngest.
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No half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly. --J.R.R. Tolkien
When you can't run, you crawl, and when you can't crawl - when you can't do that...you find someone to carry you. --Firefly
