Inset: Kara Akins (Chattanooga Times Free Press). Background: Lawrence Goodine during his trial for murdering Akins, his ex-girlfriend (WRCB).
A former Tennessee police officer has been sentenced to life behind bars after jurors found he brutally killed his ex-girlfriend, then attempted to frame her death as a drug overdose.
Lawrence Goodine, 46, was convicted Friday in Chattanooga of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, tampering with evidence and additional charges in the killing of 48-year-old Kara Akins. The conviction brought a life prison sentence.
Police discovered Akins dead on Nov. 29, 2023, inside her Carr Street home.
Courtroom coverage from the Chattanooga Times Free Press and local NBC affiliate WRCB pointed to several pivotal pieces of evidence at trial, including Ring camera video, findings from Akins’ autopsy and Goodine’s own statements to investigators.
The Ring footage captured Akins running out of the home and screaming “Help!” before Goodine chased her down and dragged her back inside. Prosecutors said he then beat and strangled her, spending the following hours trying to conceal what he had done before finally calling 911.
During closing arguments, prosecutors reportedly told jurors that Goodine moved Akins’ body across the living room, repositioned her arms and photographed her remains as part of an effort to stage the scene.
When police arrived, Goodine repeatedly pushed the overdose claim, telling officers more than once that “she took something.”
“He told you that Kara Akins took something,” Prosecutor Roger Layne reportedly told jurors. “The evidence in this case tells you what Lawrence Goodine took. He took Kara Akins’ life.”
The medical examiner determined Akins died of blunt force trauma and manual strangulation.
Goodine and Akins reportedly had a mutual no-contact order stemming from a domestic violence incident about a month before the murder.
Jurors returned with a guilty verdict after about seven hours of deliberation.
Goodine previously worked for the Chattanooga Police Department but was fired after he was accused of stealing and extortion although he was cleared. He never returned to the department.
Several of Akins’ family members attended the five-day trial. They were relieved by the guilty verdict.
“She was all love and she was true to herself to the very end and even with her abuser she tried to have the most patience with him and said, all the time, he’s a good person with a bad anger issue, and I want her to remember like how loving she was,” her sister, April Lamothe, told WRCB, after the verdict.
Though Goodine will spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder, a judge will sentence him on the other counts on Oct. 22.
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