When Spotsylvania County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ryan Mehaffey met with the attorneys of the four people involved in a racially-charged incident on Partlow Road on July 20, the lawyers agreed it was best for both sides to drop the charges, and for the parties to go their separate ways.
Mark Goodman and Elizabeth Wolfrey had faced misdemeanor charges of indecent exposure and brandishing a firearm, respectively.
Amylah Majors and Jamaria Gaskins, meanwhile, were facing a felony charge of obtaining money by false pretenses and a misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report. Majors also faced a charge of reckless driving.
In January, the charges against all four were dismissed with prejudice, meaning they can’t be brought back.
Mehaffey defended his handling of the case in an interview with the Free Press this week.
“I can’t have direct communication with the clients,” he said. “I’ve got to talk to the attorneys and each of the attorneys decided that the thing they wanted to do was to drop the charges and everybody go about their business. It’s necessary for me to have witnesses that are willing to get up on the stand to prosecute any of the charges.”
Both sides made threats
Majors and Gaskins, a Black couple from Richmond, alleged Goodman and Wolfrey committed a hate crime against them after they stopped their vehicle on the road near the white family’s home. But after a special grand jury heard all the evidence in the case, they only returned with charges against the couple.
The obtaining money by false pretenses allegation stemmed from a Gofundme.com account that raised $21,131, based on the narrative that the family chased the couple before Majors crashed the vehicle.
Majors and Gaskins also claimed Goodman and Wolfrey hurled racial slurs and threatened their lives before chasing them down the rural road, causing them to speed away into a serious crash.
The case drew nationwide attention when the couple shared their narrative on social media, which led to Spotsylvania NAACP President Moe Petway calling for hate crime charges against the Partlow family. The county board of supervisors swiftly adopted a resolution denouncing racism.
However, according to a Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office report obtained by the Free Press, both parties in the matter were threatening and belligerent to each other.
The incident started when Gaskins and Majors were driving down Partlow Road and stopped in the street after they believed they ran over debris.
A deputy who responded to the scene said that Levi Goodman (Mark Goodman’s son), exited his nearby home seeking to assist the couple, but when he contacted their vehicle, “a verbal altercation” ensued. Mark Goodman later arrived and alleged that the women yelled at him and called him a “cracker.” He later stated on a deputy’s body camera, “If those [N-words] ever come back here, they will be in the ground.”
After the altercation began, Wolfrey, Mark Goodman’s daughter, left the home and came out with a handgun “to see what was going on.” She said the weapon was pointed at her side and not in a holster, according to the report.
“She said that she did not point the weapon at anyone or threaten to shoot anyone,” the deputy’s statement noted.
Witnesses saw couple point weapon
According to the police report, Wolfrey said that the passenger in the stopped vehicle pulled out a handgun and pointed it at both her and Mark Goodman, and at one point held the weapon within one foot of their face. Wolfrey said the driver later gained control of the same weapon and pointed it at her and her father, and both women threatened to shoot them.
“Elizabeth said that she heard someone say, ‘I’m gonna shoot you, bitch,’” the deputy wrote in the report.
Wolfrey also alleged that Gaskins kicked her in the shin and grabbed her arm. A witness from Woodstock, who was visiting family in Spotsylvania, told investigators that she drove up on the incident as it was unfolding. The witness said she was directly behind the couple’s black Kia Optima as it was parked in the travel lane with the driver’s side door open. She said that she could not get around the vehicle easily because the door was extending over the double yellow lines.
She observed Mark Goodman expose his backside to the couple, which is why he was facing a charge of indecent exposure. She said as Goodman moved to the passenger side of the couple’s car, the woman recording (Gaskins) reached into the car and pulled out a handgun.
She said Gaskins pointed the gun at Mark Goodman and put the barrel in his chest. He reacted by sticking out his chest and extending his arms outward with open hands. The witness said at that point, she decided to get away from the scene. She did mention, however, that she saw Wolfrey smack the cellphone out of Gaskins’ hand while she was recording.
Eyewitness accounts dispute chase
After the dispute, the couple left the scene. They were headed down Partlow Road toward Blockhouse Road when Majors crashed the vehicle and suffered serious injuries. They were both transported to Mary Washington Hospital, and deputies recovered a 9mm handgun with three black magazines and 94 rounds of ammunition in the vehicle. The couple never faced any firearm-related charges.
When deputies arrived on the scene of the accident, they found Majors with head injuries, which they treated until the rescue squad arrived. Witnesses stated that the vehicle the couple was traveling in passed them on Partlow Road at a high rate of speed with flashers blinking before the crash. They said Majors was ejected from the vehicle and was unconscious but breathing.
Gaskins told a witness they were being chased and two people had pulled guns on them. She later told a deputy that someone was chasing them, but she was unsure what they hit or what led to the crash. The witness stated they did not see another car following the couple’s vehicle, and no other cars passed her as she approached the crash scene.
“These witness accounts make it clear that Ms. Majors and Ms. Gaskins were not being followed by anyone at the time of their crash on Partlow Road,” the police report concluded.
Gaskins was interviewed again at the hospital and told them that Levi Goodman approached the vehicle and asked if they needed any assistance, and they told him that they were fine. They said that’s when they saw Wolfrey walking across the property with a handgun, and she and Mark Goodman began to yell and curse at them, calling them the N-word, and telling them they need to leave. They recorded Goodman exposing his backside to them and Wolfrey holding the firearm. Gaskins claimed Wolfrey struck her in the head and knocked a phone out of her hand (the latter was corroborated by the witness from Woodstock).
Gaskins denied pulling a firearm (although Majors later admitted to retrieving her weapon but claimed she did not point it at anyone). Gaskins said the couple was afraid for their lives, so they took off in the vehicle, leading to the crash.
Video and audio catch parts of encounter
After a deputy reviewed the couple’s video of the incident, he went to the Spotsylvania magistrate and requested warrants against Goodman and Wolfrey, which were both granted.
Ten days after the incident, Gaskins called the sheriff’s office requesting updates on the case. She advised that the couple intended to go to the magistrate’s office to obtain their own warrants against Mark Goodman and Wolfrey. A sheriff’s office investigator informed them that he would be working on the case and may bring more charges against the father and daughter but needed more information.
Majors told him that when they left the 4300 block of Partlow Road, they were being pursued by the pair. She said Wolfrey jumped into a green pickup truck, and Mark Goodman was following them on a four-wheeler. Majors claimed they were pursued up to the point of the crash but did not know where the pair went after the crash.
A video recording starts with Gaskins and Majors outside their car, arguing with Levi Goodman and Wolfrey. Then, Mark Goodman is heard arriving on a side-by-side ATV across the road from Levi Goodman and Wolfrey, saying ‘Hey [N-word]’ as soon as he arrives. Obscenities and racial slurs are hurled back and forth, and the video ends when Gaskins puts her phone down on the front seat and retrieves something from inside the car.
The investigator informed the couple that a witness said they saw Gaskins pull a gun and place the muzzle directly to Goodman’s chest. Gaskins denied the allegation.
As the discussion with investigators moved to the crash, Majors continued to claim that Mark Goodman pursued them on the ATV and pointed a gun through the driver’s window just before she crashed. Gaskins also alleged that Wolfrey and Levi Goodman pursued them in a green pickup. She acknowledged she didn’t see them in the truck but assumed it was them.
The investigator also asked the couple why they left their vehicle if they were afraid of the family. They responded that they had every right to be where they were and weren’t going to back down from Wolfrey when she showed up with a weapon.
The couple had discussions with Petway about potential hate crime charges, but Mehaffey informed them that for a hate crime to occur, a victim must be sought out based on their race, religion, etc. Mehaffey said that the Goodmans and Wolfrey were at their home, not seeking to commit a crime against anyone.
Mehaffey also informed the couple that when a special grand jury convenes, they will hear all evidence and decide whether anyone involved in the incident can be charged with a crime. Gaskins and Majors didn’t want to risk being indicted and constantly referred to themselves as victims. Petway was on hand for the interrogation and advised them that the audio and video recordings looked bad on both sides and that they may be exposed to a potential indictment.
Mehaffey also mentioned the possibility of an agreement called an “accordance in satisfaction” that would state that both sides were satisfied with the investigative efforts into the case and agreed to no longer pursue charges.
The special grand jury met on Nov. 13, returning with the charges against Gaskins and Majors. But on Jan. 22, Mehaffey dismissed the charges against all parties after meeting with their attorneys.
