By JEFFREY SMITH
Leader staff writer
White supremacist Jacob Goodwin, 22, of Butlerville was extradited Thursday to Virginia to face a felony charge of malicious wounding for his alleged violent actions against a black man at the “Unite the Right” white nationalists rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12.
Goodwin was held at the Lonoke County Detention Center since Oct. 10, fighting extradition after being arrested in Ward by U.S. Marshal Task Forces on a warrant from Charlottesville.
Virginia state law classifies malicious wounding as a Class 3 felony.
According to the Virginia law, “If any person maliciously shoot, stab, cut, or wound any person or by any means cause him bodily injury, with the intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill, he shall, except where it is otherwise provided, be guilty of a Class 3 felony.”
Punishment for a conviction is from five to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $100,000.
Goodwin is allegedly one of six men attending the “Unite the Right” white nationalists rally who savagely beat black counter-protester, DeAndre Harris, 20, in a parking garage next to Charlottesville police headquarters after the rally was dispersed by police. Harris suffered a spinal injury and a head laceration.
Police identified Goodwin as one of the men in video footage attacking Harris, who was on the ground.
Goodwin was dressed in all black wearing a riot helmet and carrying a large clear riot shield. Video of the attack was posted on YouTube. The Washington Post reported his mother, Tamera Goodwin, also attended the rally.
The Post reported Harris was also arrested on Oct. 10 on a felony charge of unlawful wounding for allegedly hitting a white nationalist at the rally with flashlight before the fight at the parking garage occurred.
It was the same rally where white supremacists, Klan members and neo-Nazis fought against counter-protesters as it was dispersed by police.
James Fields Jr., 20, of Maumeea, Ohio, allegedly drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters killing white woman Heather Heyer, 32, of Charlottesville and injuring 19 others. He was charged with second-degree murder, five counts of malicious wounding, three counts of aggravated malicious wounding and failing to stop at the scene of a crash that resulted in a death.
The Post reported journalist and activist Shaun King, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and others combed through on-line information sources and social media to identify Goodwin and others charged with the attack. King is a writer for the New York Daily News.
King posted photos of Goodwin at the rally and searched Facebook pages of white supremacists to identify and name the suspects. King publicly named Goodwin in September and turned his findings to Charlottesville police.
On Sept. 24 King posted on his Facebook page, “Dear Jacob Scott Goodwin, age 22, of Ward, Arkansas - we have looked for you for a month. In the end it was your hair, your bracelets, your glasses, your tattoo on your forearm, the white supremacist pins and necklaces, and your own bragging online that helped us identify you as one of the felony attackers of DeAndre Harris in Charlottesville.
“Soon, you will be arrested alongside Dan Borden and Michael Alex Ramos, for what you did on that day. It was you who attacked DeAndre, nearly knocking him unconscious.”