Prosecutor Calls Goetz ‘Vigilante,’ Urges His Conviction

NEW YORK — In a dramatic closing argument, a state prosecutor Thursday called Bernhard H. Goetz “a very disturbed human being” who wanted, not to defend himself, but to be “an avenging angel” when he shot and wounded four youths in a Manhattan subway 2 1/2 years ago.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Gregory L. Waples called Goetz a “vigilante” who hoped the youths would “make his day” by giving him an excuse to kill them as revenge for a previous mugging he experienced.

Waples, speaking for nearly four hours, pleaded with the 12 jurors not to “capitulate to the fear of crime” and asked them to convict the subway gunman of attempted murder and other charges after the seven-week trial.

“It’s a question of civilization,” Waples said. “It’s a question of whether Bernhard Goetz is above the law.”

Cites Confessions

Waples returned again and again to Goetz’s own words, as recorded in two separate two-hour confessions after the self-employed electronics technician turned himself in to police in Concord, N.H., nine days after the Dec. 22, 1984, shootings.

On the tapes, Goetz said he shot the four unarmed 19-year-old youths with hollow-point bullets from an unlicensed .38-caliber pistol after one had approached him and asked for $5. Goetz said he believed the youths were going to “beat him to a pulp.”

The prosecutor recounted how Goetz said he shot the youth closest to him, and then shot two others as they tried to run away. But Waples said the jurors, including six crime victims, could “assume for the sake of argument” that Goetz was justified in shooting those three in self-defense.

But Waples said the shooting of the fourth youth, Darrel Cabey, was “so different, so sadistic, so unnecessary” as to demand conviction.

Shooting of Cabey

According to Goetz’s confession, he walked over to Cabey on a subway seat after shooting Cabey’s friends. Seeing that Cabey appeared unharmed and was looking away, Goetz recalled, he said: “You look all right, here’s another,” and fired again at close range.

In his confession, Goetz said he was “out of control” when he shot Cabey or he would have “put the barrel up to his forehead and fired.” He also said he wanted to use his keys to “gouge his eyes out.”

“That’s not self-defense the defendant is talking about,” Waples said, as a red-faced Goetz looked down at the defense table. “That’s cold-blooded execution.”

Cabey remains brain damaged and paralyzed from the waist down. The three other youths have recovered, but have been convicted of other crimes.

Robbery Not Attempted

Waples said a “reasonable man” would have realized that moving away, or simply displaying the gun would have averted trouble on the train. He said none of the witnesses saw Goetz surrounded, and that the youths did not try to rob Goetz. The problem was with Goetz, he said.

“The problem is we’re not dealing with a reasonable man,” he said. “ . . . We’re dealing with the classic example of the unreasonable man.”

Goetz’s attorney, Barry I. Slotnick, had told jurors in his closing argument on Wednesday that Goetz had “fantasized” shooting Cabey separately because stress and fear had altered his memory and perceptions.

Waples called that theory “mumbo jumbo” and “wishful thinking.” Witnesses, he said, had corroborated every element of Goetz’s confessions, which he called “by far the most important evidence in this case.”

No Insanity Plea

Waples said Goetz was “seriously troubled,” “abnormal” and “sick.” But Waples told jurors that even if they believe Goetz was “crazy as a loon,” he had not pleaded insanity and it could not be considered.

“His legal sanity is not an issue,” he said. “The defendant desperately wants the world to regard him not as a freak or a lunatic, but as a perfectly normal New Yorker.”

Waples said Goetz had a “score to settle” because he had been mugged and beaten in 1981 and felt justice had not been done. He said Goetz had “thumbed his nose” at the law after the police had denied him a pistol permit.

“Beneath this placid, unassuming exterior lurks a dark spirit, a person who’s anything but a typical New Yorker,” Waples said, his voice booming in the hushed courtroom. “He’s deeply suspicious, intellectually rigid, seething inside with self-righteous anger, and obsessed with crime and his own solution. This man was an emotional powder keg. All he needed was a spark to set him off.”

‘An Avenging Angel’

He said Goetz had a “supremely arrogant mind” and saw himself as “an avenging angel.” Waples added: “He became something of a vigilante, a person who takes the law into his own hands.”

He questioned why Goetz deliberately sat with and stared at the four youths, who were loud and rowdy, when the 28 other passengers on the 7th Avenue IRT express train sat apart.

“You should be wondering if he wasn’t secretly hoping that one of these rambunctious kids wouldn’t make his day and do something stupid and provide him with some excuse to draw his gun and get his revenge,” Waples said.

Goetz, 39, dressed in his customary open shirt and jeans, appeared uncomfortable, red-faced and frowning during much of Waples’ summation. He slouched low in his chair, doodled on a yellow pad, and sometimes closed his eyes or smiled to himself.

Could Get 30 Years

He is charged with attempted murder, assault and illegal weapons possession. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted on the most serious charge.

Judge Stephen Crane said he would instruct the jurors and give them the case for deliberations today.

The final stage of the celebrated trial at State Supreme Court in Lower Manhattan has drawn international attention. More than 70 reporters and court artists jockeyed with members of the public for the 160 seats in the giant fifth-floor courtroom.

Many people waited in line for hours to attend, and guards dragged one woman off shouting after she tried to run into the court. Outside, two men appeared at day’s end to hawk T-shirts emblazoned “Thugbuster--Acquit Bernie Goetz,” for $8 each. There were few takers, however.