Professor stunned by early release of daughter’s killer

Until a television producer told them on the phone, Nancy and Steven Comiskey had no idea their daughter’s killer had been a free man for nearly a year and a half.

Had the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office followed the correct procedure, the Comiskeys would have known of his release in July 2011.

On Nov. 9, 2004, Bryan Gooldy, high on drugs, drove across the center line on North Walnut Street and struck IU alumna Kate Comiskey’s vehicle. She was killed in the head-on collision.

It was 7:05 a.m., and Kate, a teacher at Indian Creek High School in Trafalgar, Ind., was on her way to work.

A month after the accident, Steven submitted a victim notification form to the prosecutor’s office. He and Nancy were to be notified if Gooldy was released, but the county prosecutor’s office never filed the form with the state.

“You become used to dealing with the grief and pushing it down inside, and then things like this just bring it right back up, right back up to the surface,” said Nancy, an IU journalism lecturer and former interim director of IU Student Media.

Gooldy was sentenced to 20 years in prison, which was then doubled to 40 years under the state’s habitual offender statute.

Before the accident, Gooldy had been convicted in other cases and had already served six years for a robbery charge.

In March 2011, that sentence was reduced to 20 years. During the initial hearing, prosecutors cited the wrong statute. They should’ve cited the habitual drug offender statute, which adds eight years to a sentence rather than doubling it. To add back to Gooldy’s sentence, the Comiskeys would’ve had to take him to trial again.

Because Indiana law allows inmates two days of credit for every one day served with good behavior, Gooldy would serve 10 years.

Rather than risk an acquittal in the nearly seven-year-old case, the Comiskeys decided to accept the sentence reduction with the understanding that Gooldy’s sentence would not be reduced any further.

They had been assured that he would be released in November 2014 at the earliest.

In a letter written to the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office on Feb. 21, 2011, Nancy said the “lack of communication in the past six months is disturbing” and insisted their consistent hearing attendance and her 20 plus phone calls to the case’s lead prosecutor, Jeff Kehr, were sufficient evidence they wanted to remain informed on the case’s progress.

“Our decision, of course, rests entirely on your securing a guilty plea on the B felony and the sentence of 10 real years in prison,” Nancy wrote. “We understand Gooldy would remain in prison until November 2014, and there is no chance of early release. If this is not correct, please notify us immediately.”

Nobody ever did.

Just four months after the sentencing adjustment and Nancy’s letter, Gooldy was released on July 29, 2011, to Parole District 5, which encompasses southeastern Indiana.

Gooldy completed a variety of state programs to receive additional time off his sentence.

He received 365 days for completing an associate’s degree in Bible studies, 183 days for completing the state’s PLUS “faith and character-based” program and 657 days for completing a bachelor’s degree in organizational management.

This brought his release date to the earlier July 29, 2011, date.

“The big problem here is that these education programs are basically get out of jail free cards,” Nancy said. “It’s just unbelievable to me that a man with 10 convictions who has killed somebody serves six and a half years of a 20-year sentence, let alone six and a half years of a 40-year sentence.”

Nancy things the education programs are good, but they shouldn’t allow offenders to dock time off their already shortened sentences.

The Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but Indiana Department of Corrections spokesperson Doug Garrison said the department was never informed of the Comiskeys’ request to be notified of Gooldy’s release.

“When an offender is released by opportunity of law, there is no parole hearing,” Garrison said.

However, he said the Comiskeys would have had the freedom to write to the prosecutor’s office on behalf of their daughter, but he wasn’t sure whether the law would have allowed their input to influence Gooldy’s release date.     

“If everything had been done as it should have been, we would have been notified 45 days before his release, and we could have at least written a letter to the commissioner, we could have written a letter to the parole board, we could have spoken up for our daughter, and that was just so hard for me to deal with in the first couple of days of this, just knowing that no one spoke up for her,” Nancy said.

Nancy said she is unsure whether there are any legal repercussions for the actions of the prosecutor’s office but said she plans to file an official complaint with the state.

“What happened was wrong,” Nancy said. “But nothing is going to bring our daughter back.”

Prior to their discovery of Gooldy’s early release, Steven and Nancy had talked about the irony November 2014 would bring.

“We had always thought, well isn’t this interesting that we will be marking the 10th anniversary of our daughter’s death at the same time this guy will be celebrating getting out of prison,” Nancy said.

The Comiskeys have spent the last eight years keeping Kate’s memory alive.

“There is not an hour of the day I don’t think of her,” she said. “She had just exceeded all our expectations. She was an amazing teacher, the funniest woman I have ever known. We adored her, and she adored us, and basically a big part of our lives ended that day. Our lives will never be the same. We’ll never ever be the same.”

Kate loved animals, so each year for Christmas and their daughter’s birthday, the Comiskeys play with animals at the Humane Society and make a donation. They still have Kate’s dog, Lola.

For Nancy and Steven, there really is no next step.

“What’s next is we get up tomorrow morning and get through another day, that’s what’s next,” Nancy said. “That’s what’s next. That’s just the way it is, and we’ve had eight years to practice that, and we’ll have some more.”