ANDERSON, Ind. — Christine Goudy says she hopped an early Wednesday flight from Las Vegas to finally pick her son up from a prison that he should have never been in, but news of a last-minute court filing put their reunion on hold.

“That was a big shock to me, with them calling me and giving me confirmation to come,” the mother said Wednesday evening over the telephone.

In one day, Walter Goudy — whose murder conviction was overturned in May — was told he would be released, then that he wouldn’t be released, and then that he may be released, according to his mother and attorney.

Special prosecutor Barry Brown filed a motion Wednesday to release Goudy. Madison County Judge Thomas Newman must now review the motion, said Mark Maynard, Goudy’s defense attorney.

Maynard said Wednesday evening that the confusion resulted from a new special prosecutor who just received the case.

“He didn’t have an opportunity to review the case,” Maynard said of the special prosecutor. “He was appointed on the 27th; that was just last Friday.”

Walter Goudy, now 42, was convicted in 1995 of shooting and killing Marvin McCloud in Anderson, along with another shooter who pleaded guilty. The U.S. Court of Appeals of the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago, overturned his conviction in May, giving Madison County 120 days to retry the case or release Goudy.

For most of the 120 days, which ended Tuesday, the case has been shuffled through prosecutors.

Thomas Broderick, the Madison County prosecutor, petitioned for a special prosecutor on June 28, almost two months after the appellate ruling.

Broderick said in the petition that he represented a witness in the original case against Goudy. Broderick was a public defender at the time, and represented a man who testified to Goudy’s alibi and then was later charged in the 1994 shooting, Broderick said Wednesday.

Broderick also noted the political overtones to the case. His November opponent, Rodney Cummings, was the detective in the shooting case and the prosecutor when Goudy’s case went to trial.

“I didn’t want it to become a big political issue; it’s not necessary,” Broderick said Wednesday.

The court accepted Broderick’s petition three days after it was filed. J.A. Cummings, who has been a special prosecutor in several Madison County cases, was appointed, according to court documents.

Nineteen days later, Cummings declined the appointment because “he does not have the time to devote,” the court documents said.

A month later, the court appointed Brown, a special prosecutor from Bloomington, who officially accepted the case Aug. 27.

With only four days to make a decision, Brown filed a motion to retry the murder case Tuesday afternoon, just escaping a deadline that would have ended the case for good.

Maynard said Brown then reviewed the appellate court’s wording in their May order, and filed a motion Wednesday to release Goudy.

“My understanding is that Mr. Brown felt that, in order to comply with the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals order, that since Walter had not been retried by the end of the 120 days, that he no longer could be held in confinement,” Maynard said.

Maynard said Goudy’s release has not been finalized, and would not mean the case is not going to be retried. He said Brown is stilling reviewing the case.

Brown will need to decide if there is still a strong enough case to win. The appellate court decided in May that Goudy did not receive a fair trial due to decisions in Cumming’s office.

As of right now, a court date has been set for Nov. 8 for a pre-trial conference.

Meanwhile, Christine Goudy is awaiting her son’s release.

“Hopefully, we can get it (the motion to release) signed and we can have a family holiday,” she said of the Labor Day weekend.  

Contact Christina M. Wright, 640-4883, christina.wright@heraldbulletin.com.