Steven William Reed, a 27-year-old White/Caucasian man, arrived at a house in Newark, Arkansas, just after daybreak on July 9, 2018, to pick up a woman named Jammie Venable, with his sister-in-law waiting outside in the car. Court records later described a fraught triangle: Venable had previously dated John M. Goodman, the man inside the home, and had a child with him; after ending that relationship, she had been seeing Reed. As Reed came to the door of the residence on Locust Street, a voice from inside said the door was open. When he stepped just inside the entryway, shots cracked through the foyer wall and door. Deputies would find Reed lying within a few feet of the threshold, and no weapon on him. Goodman, who had just retrieved a pistol from his bedroom after telling Venable “It’s either me or him” and “I’ll shoot him or myself,” admitted firing in a “heat of the moment,” later telling investigators he had “blacked out” from anger. Authorities would also note the gun used in the killing had been reported stolen out of Missouri.
Within hours of the shooting, Independence County deputies detained Goodman at the scene and opened a homicide investigation, identifying Reed as the victim and Goodman, then 33, as the suspect. He was booked into the county jail on a first-degree murder charge and held on a $1 million bond while detectives collected witness statements and processed the scene at 1265 Locust Street. Early briefings from the sheriff confirmed a male victim and male suspect and indicated the case would be forwarded promptly for formal charging.
In the months that followed, prosecutors detailed the sequence of events—Reed’s knock at the door, the invitation to enter, the volley of shots just inside the threshold, and Goodman’s emergence from the house with a handgun while looking for his dog—supported by physical evidence of bullet strikes in the doorway and witness accounts from Venable and Dusty Reed. Those filings emphasized that Reed had not been armed when he was shot. The narrative of jealousy, a recent breakup, and a volatile confrontation framed the state’s case.
The criminal case concluded the following year. On March 21, 2019, Goodman pleaded guilty in Independence County Circuit Court to second-degree murder for killing Steven William Reed and received a 28-year sentence to the Arkansas Department of Corrections. Prosecutors summarized the core facts in open court: Reed had gone to Goodman’s home that July morning and was shot as he entered the residence. With the plea and sentencing, the investigation into Reed’s death—recorded the day it happened as a fatal shooting in Newark—closed with a conviction and substantial prison term.
