Goddard is charged with murder, attempting to distribute controlled substances, possession of a firearm and other counts. Cortner faces charges related to trafficking and the death of DelRio.
Defense attorneys argued on Wednesday that their clients were not aware DelRio was a police officer and mistook him for an intruder. Goddard fired rounds out of self-defense, while Cortner hid to avoid harm, the defense said.
U.S. Attorney Brent Tabacchi told jurors during his opening statement that evidence throughout the trial will show that Goddard shot bullets — with a gun he illegally purchased — at DelRio while DelRio was wearing a police uniform and executing a search warrant with a Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force on a house on Ruskin Road in Dayton.
DelRio knocked on the door of the Ruskin Road home on Nov. 4, 2019 and entered the residence after not hearing anyone answer. From there, he traveled down the stairs to the basement of the house.
In the basement were Goddard, Cortner and two others. Where Goddard was positioned in the basement, DelRio could not see him, but he could see DelRio, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Goddard fired five shots at DelRio, who only fired one. Two hit the DEA veteran in the face, and one struck him just above his police badge, piercing his skin.
DelRio died from wounds he sustained in the shooting days later on Nov. 7, 2019.
Prosecutors say evidence in the trial will also point to both Goddard and Cortner using their phones to advertise and attract customers to buy drugs from them. These drugs include fentanyl, cocaine and marijuana, U.S. attorneys said on Wednesday. The trial will include details from a 2018 Oklahoma traffic stop that included Goddard.
U.S. attorneys say they will also show that Cortner helped modify his and Goddard’s matching sets of handguns with laser scopes.
Jacob Will, an attorney representing Goddard, told jurors on Wednesdays that his client was acting to protect himself. He said that jurors will learn during the trial that little time passed from the initial knocks on the door to officers entering the house.
Will said there’s no dispute about drugs found at the residence or a gun being fired that day, but he argued that Goddard was “reasonable in his mistaken belief that he was acting in self-defense.”
Attorney Dennis Lieberman, who is representing Cortner, said his client was in the wrong place at the wrong time, playing video games with childhood friends. Shortly before police entered the home, Cortner was making dinner plans over the phone with his wife.
Cortner was employed at DMAX in the Dayton area from 2001 up until the November 2019 incident, lived in a modest home and drove a modest car. No drugs were found in his house or in his car during the investigation, Lieberman said.
“What happened was a tragic incident,” he said. “We don’t minimize deaths of police officers. But the government stretched too far to bring (Cortner) into this tragic situation.”
A third man, Lionel Combs, accepted a plea agreement this week on charges related to the November 2019 incident.
Combs was the owner of the Ruskin Road home and the brother-in-law of Goddard, according to the plea agreement.
About the Author
