In the quiet city of Huntsville, Alabama, the life of a promising young man, Carvell Goodlow, was tragically cut short. On the evening of Sunday, September 16, 2018, the 20-year-old Oakwood University student was found deceased between apartment buildings at the Westlake complex. Goodlow, a male, had sustained a fatal gunshot wound in what authorities would later describe as a senseless act of violence.
The investigation into Goodlow's death moved swiftly.
Within days, the Huntsville Police Department announced the arrest of 19-year-old Jaylun Demarcus White. Investigators believed that the shooting was a tragic case of mistaken identity. Goodlow, who was described by the Oakwood University president as a 'bright young man' and a 'first-generation college student,' had apparently been at a gas station where an unrelated altercation had taken place earlier. It is believed that White wrongly identified Goodlow as someone else involved in that dispute.
Following his arrest, Jaylun Demarcus White was charged with the murder of Carvell Goodlow. While the specifics of the trial and his exact sentence are not publicly detailed, subsequent records indicate that White was convicted of a violent crime in Madison County. In August 2020, he was denied parole. Later, in February of 2024, records show that Jaylun Demarcus White was booked into the Madison County jail for a felony violation of his probation, indicating he had been previously sentenced and was no longer incarcerated for the original charge. The community, particularly the students and faculty of Oakwood University, mourned the loss of a young man who had come to Huntsville with dreams of a brighter future, only to have his life taken in a devastating instance of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
