Bio

Joseph Bishop Goff, of Theodore, Alabama, became acquainted with Brandy Stewart Yates while she worked as a waitress at the Bama Barn, a bar in Theodore. Yates, 29, had been married to James Yates Jr. for eight years and had two young children, an 8-year-old son, James IV, and a daughter known as Sissy. On August 1, 2004, Yates left her husband and children to travel with Goff.

Murder Story

On August 26, 2004, at 3:53 p.m., Yates checked into room 121 at the Rocky Creek Inn in Lucedale, Mississippi, accompanied by Goff. At some point that day, the two had an altercation, and Goff left the motel, driving to Mobile, Alabama, where he met an acquaintance named Melissa before eventually returning to Lucedale. That evening, Yates spoke by phone with her estranged husband several times; she told him Goff had slapped her and dropped her off at the motel, and she was crying and upset, in part because she had not seen her children and wanted to. When James Yates called the motel room around 11:30 p.m., a male voice he recognized as Goff's answered before hanging up. Motel desk clerk Margaret Clark testified that she made a duplicate room key for Goff after he told her that he and his girlfriend were locked out.

James Yates called the room again at 5 a.m. on August 27 to tell Brandy he was on his way to pick her up, but she did not answer. Later that morning, George County sheriff's investigators responded to a 911 call reporting a fire and a body in room 121. Sheriff Garry Welford, one of the first responders, testified, "I saw two feet sticking beyond the ends of the beds and what appeared to be body organs thrown about the room." Brandy Yates's mutilated body was found between the two beds in the partially burned room. The medical examiner identified four sharp-force wounds to her neck as the fatal injuries, while also documenting extensive blunt-force trauma and mutilation; prosecutors alleged Goff had used a nightstand drawer and its metal track in the beating and mutilation, and had set the room on fire afterward in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence.

Later that same day, Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol Trooper Jason W. Ginn stopped Goff during a traffic stop for a defaced license tag along Interstate 20 in Warren County. Ginn testified that Goff's evasive, vague answers about traveling to Texas, along with a comment that he had "lost his girlfriend" during an argument in Lucedale, raised his suspicion. Ginn contacted the George County Sheriff's Department to check on Yates's welfare, leading investigators to connect Goff to the murder. A search of Goff's car turned up items taken from the motel room, including Yates's wallet — evidence that would later become central to the case, since the wallet was used to establish that a robbery had occurred, an element required for a capital murder charge under Mississippi law.

Goff fired his own defense attorneys, Jeff Deen and Scott McNally, partway through the trial and chose to represent himself, with Deen and McNally reappointed by Circuit Judge Dale Harkey as standby co-counsel. During the trial, defense counsel attempted to cast suspicion on Yates's husband by asking whether their marital problems stemmed from physical abuse; James Yates responded, "I love my wife. And I do to this day."

On May 5, 2005, a jury convicted Goff of arson and capital murder for Yates's death. The following day, the jury returned a sentence of death, and Judge Harkey separately sentenced Goff to 10 years for the arson conviction.

Goff's automatic appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court raised twelve separate issues, including a Fourth Amendment challenge to the traffic stop and search, a claim regarding his right to self-representation, a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the robbery element of his capital murder conviction, claims of prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel, and a claim that his death sentence was disproportionate. In a narrow 5–4 decision issued May 28, 2009 (Goff v. State, 14 So.3d 625), the Mississippi Supreme Court rejected all of Goff's claims and affirmed his conviction and death sentence, with the closely divided vote reflecting genuine disagreement among the justices specifically over whether the state had sufficiently proven the robbery element. A rehearing was denied on August 27, 2009. The case subsequently drew the attention of the U.S. Supreme Court, which scheduled a conference on Goff's petition in February 2010.

Goff later sought permission from the Mississippi Supreme Court to file a post-conviction appeal in George County Circuit Court, arguing new evidence or a constitutional issue that might warrant a new trial. The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that this request would be "stayed indefinitely pending Goff's mental health treatment and notice from the trial court that Goff is again competent to proceed," effectively freezing further appellate proceedings until his competency could be restored. That stay was never lifted. Joseph Bishop Goff died in prison on July 13, 2019, with his post-conviction proceedings still unresolved. He was never executed.