PHOENIX – A man accused of being the serial Baseline Killer, who terrorized residents for more than a year, pleaded not guilty Thursday to nine murders and scores of other violent crimes.
Mark Goudeau, 42, is charged with 94 crimes in all, including the nine counts of first-degree murder, 15 counts of sexual assault and 11 counts of kidnapping.
Defense attorney Corwin Townsend said Goudeau has little chance of a fair trial in a city where the mayor has called him a "violent monster." Townsend asked Judge James Keppel at Goudeau's arraignment Thursday in Maricopa County Superior Court to move the trial out of the Phoenix area.
Somebody riddled Goudeau's home with bullets on Monday night, an attack that is "symptomatic of the overall problem we have here now," Townsend said.
Another hearing was scheduled for Feb. 2.
Goudeau, a former construction worker, is suspected of starting to prey on people at random after he was released from prison in 2004 on armed robbery, kidnapping and aggravated assault convictions.
Police have said the killer usually struck at night and wore disguises, including a wig of dreadlocks and a fisherman's hat. The name Baseline Killer came from the Phoenix street where some of the earliest crimes were committed.
Police arrested Goudeau in September on suspicion of two sexual assaults in 2005 and indicted him this month on the other charges.
The Baseline Killer was one of two serial killer cases in the Phoenix area recently.
In August, police arrested two men in the Serial Shooter case who are accused of driving around the area at night, firing at people randomly. Seven people were killed. The defendants have pleaded not guilty.
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