An ex-con and construction worker was charged Monday with 17 felony counts in two sexual assaults linked to an investigation of a string of serial killings.
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said that authorities are not calling Goudeau "The Baseline Killer," and that he has not been named as a suspect in the 22 other robberies, rapes and shootings that left eight people dead since August 2005.
For more than a year, a predator known as the Baseline Killer has terrorized the Phoenix area with crimes ranging from murder to rape and robbery. Police continue to try to understand how and whether Goudeau is connected, Thomas said.
The case is one of two serial predator cases in Phoenix during the past year. Police have arrested two men in the other, dubbed the Serial Shooter investigation.
At a news conference, Thomas said Arizona's parole board was "naive and misguided" when it granted early release to Goudeau in 2004. Goudeau had eight more years to go on a prison sentence for unrelated assault charges.
‘Brutal crimes’
"The victims of these brutal crimes deserve justice," he said. "I will do everything in my power to ensure that this defendant never again walks the streets a free man."
Goudeau is accused of attacking two sisters, who were 21 and 23, in September 2005 while they were walking in a park at night. Defense lawyer Corwin A. Townsend said that Goudeau plans to plead not guilty to the charges. And as soon as he gets the chance, Townsend said, he'll independently test the DNA evidence that authorities used to arrest Goudeau.
Goudeau's wife also has said he is innocent.
‘Miscarriage of justice’
"This is a huge miscarriage of justice," Wendy Carr said. "And they have an innocent man in prison. This is all a mistake. He shouldn't be in prison for something he didn't do."
The Baseline Killer, so named because the earliest incidents occurred along Phoenix's Baseline Road, has been linked to 23 crimes in the metro area dating to August 2005, including eight killings, 11 sexual assaults of women and girls, and several robberies.
Investigators said they connected the crimes either through forensic evidence or similarities in the way they were committed.
In the Serial Shooter case, police arrested Dale S. Hausner, 33, and Samuel Dieteman, 30, early last month. The roommates are charged with murder and attempted murder in 16 shootings, two of them fatal. Both pleaded not guilty.