Clarification: Brinklow’s hard drug use with Good, Crouch was sought to ease suspicions he was a police informant

In response to two private emails to Royal Examiner, from a family friend and relative of Tristen Brinklow, critical of this reporter’s coverage of the Friday, August 13, plea agreement hearing of George Lee Good related to Brinklow’s September 26, 2019, murder, Royal Examiner has agreed to print a “Clarification” at the urging of the one writer who responded to a query on the best path forward. As this reporter explained in private emailed responses to both writers, I reported details of what was said in court during the plea agreement hearing that may have impacted the judge’s decision to accept it.

However, what was at issue for the two readers was a lack of detail found in proffer statements by George Good in the Commonwealth Attorney Office’s possession regarding Brinklow’s participation in the use of methamphetamine with Good and Richard Matthew Crouch prior to the murder. That detail was NOT addressed in the Commonwealth’s comments to the court on August 13 on how the Good plea agreement was reached and why it should be accepted by the court. A subsequent conversation with Warren County Commonwealth Attorney John Bell on Monday, August 16, indicated that particular detail was peripheral to the issue at hand three days earlier – whether a 10-year prison term to serve, with 25 years suspended, hanging over Good’s head were he to be convicted of any crime while on 10-years probation after his release, was sufficient punishment for his role in the crime – That role believed at this point by the Commonwealth to be a witness to the murder and accessory after the fact in the disposal of the body.

A Facebook photo of Tristen Brinklow wearing a hat sporting a slogan – ‘Fight the Dead; Fear the Living’ – associated with the TV zombie apocalypse series ‘The Walking Dead’. Below, Richard Matthew Crouch, one of the living Tristen Brinklow may have come to fear too late, will have his 2nd Degree Murder plea agreement before the court on Nov. 29. That agreement recommends 40 years in prison for the 38-year-old, though sentencing guidelines could shave about a decade off that number. Crouch Photo RSW Jail

Informed of the reader complaints, Bell provided this reporter with the relevant portion of Good’s proffered statement to his office. So, for clarification of this reference in the original story: “‘My son was in the wrong place at the wrong time and never came home,’ (Brinklow’s mother) said, focusing on Good’s presence at the scene of the crime, his motel room where the prosecution contends he watched Richard Crouch beat her son to death after all three men had done methamphetamine.” – Let it be clear, Brinklow’s use of meth that day was sought to ease suspicions by the other two that he might be a police informant.

In plea negotiations, George Lee Good, 29, described pressuring Tristen Brinklow into joining him and Crouch in doing methamphetamine in his motel room prior to the 20-year-old Brinklow’s murder. NVADC Photo

While not addressed in court on August 13, George Good explained it this way to the prosecutor’s office in negotiating his plea agreement, which included being a primary witness in the Crouch prosecution (Crouch has since proffered his own plea agreement, which includes a guilty plea to 2nd Degree Murder):

“I noticed at one point like Tristen he’s like he wasn’t hitting the bubble, he wasn’t doing any lines nothing like that and it kind of freaked me out for a little bit … I was like, uh you don’t get high, what do you do? He was like ‘well, I don’t really mess with meth or anything like that’ … he was like ‘I smoke weed’ and I was like well we don’t got any of that … but to be honest with you, it kind of bugs me a little bit that … you’re not getting high and everybody around us is getting high, talking about selling drugs and sh*t … I was like I want you to hit this bubble. He was like ‘alright, yeah man,’ he was like ‘I’m not a cop, nothing like that’ … and he was like yeah, ‘just show me how to do it,’ so I light it for him and he hits it … I kind of feel like an a**hole … you know my bad dude … I’m like you’re alright and um, so me and Matt get to talking and he’s like, ‘So how much you want’ …”

See previous stories below.

Emotions high as George Good plea agreement in Brinklow murder case accepted by court

Dynamics of second Brinklow murder plea deal explained