A Claymont man has pleaded guilty to several charges in the 2022 murder of Kevin Goodson, which means that all three men responsible for the murder are convicted and face up to life in prison. On October 10, 21-year-old Justin Locke pled guilty to Murder 2^nd Degree, Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony, Conspiracy 1^st Degree and Kidnapping 1^st Degree in New Castle County Superior Court. The plea follows an investigation that found that Locke and two associates assaulted Goodson in a Claymont parking lot, beating him nearly to death before kidnapping him, dumping him in the woods to die, and ultimately shooting and setting fire to his lifeless body. 

“These men displayed an abhorrent level of violence and cruelty,” said Attorney General Kathy Jennings. “The kind of hatred and disregard for human life that can drive this brutality is unfathomable. I’m grateful for all the work our prosecutors and the Delaware State Police did to find these killers, to hold them accountable, and to secure justice for the victim.” 
 

On July 24, 2022, Locke and two associates, Jeffrey Labarge, 23, and Tyler Simpson, 23, physically assaulted Goodson, 56, in a parking lot off Philadelphia Pike in Claymont, beating him unconscious before fleeing. The three returned shortly thereafter, loaded Goodson into Locke’s vehicle, and drove him to a secluded section of the former Claymont Steel property, where they abandoned him. The men later returned to the Claymont Steel property after purchasing a can of gasoline.  They moved Goodson’s body to a location further into the property, where Locke shot him four times before the body was set on fire. Goodson’s remains were discovered beneath a tarp covered in a layer of rocks along the Delaware River.  

With this plea, all three defendants have now pleaded guilty. Tyler Simpson and Jeffrey Labarge previously entered guilty pleas to Murder 2^nd Degree, Conspiracy 1^st Degree, and Kidnapping 1^st Degree, and each face a sentencing range of 17 years to life in prison. Locke faces a sentencing range of 20 years to life. 

This plea agreement was secured by Deputy Attorneys General Jamie McCloskey and Isaac Rank with the assistance of Paralegals Jamie Prater, Administrative Assistant Evelyn Davis, and Social Worker Crystal Pitts following an investigation led by the Delaware State Police. 
 

The Delaware Department of Justice has secured multiple felony convictions against a Kent County couple charged with the serial abuse and torture of their children, Attorney General Kathy Jennings announced Wednesday.

“These are the cases that keep us up at night,” said Attorney General Jennings. “The pain that these children endured — and that it was inflicted by people who should have been their protectors — is unthinkable. Thanks to the efforts of our prosecutors and of our partners in law enforcement, these abusers will be in prison for years to come. Their victims are safe now — but I also know that they have a long road of healing ahead of them. They are in all of our hearts today.”

Over a period of 20 months, Mary Vinson, 46, and Charles Vinson, 37, are alleged to have abused their children, including making them stand for long periods of time; withholding food; force feeding them; and violently and repetitively physically assaulting the victims. Both children, who have since been transferred into the custody of the Division of Family services, were hospitalized several times due to the severity of the abuse, which was caught on video by cameras the parents placed in the children’s room.

On September 26, the Vinsons pleaded guilty to the following crimes:

Mary Vinson:

• Six counts of Child Abuse 1^st Degree, a Class B Violent Felony
• Seven counts of Attempted Child Abuse 1^stDegree, a Class B Violent Felony
• Two counts of Kidnapping 1^st Degree, a Class B Violent Felony
• Three counts of Attempted Assault 2^ndDegree, a Class D Violent Felony
• Four counts of Strangulation, a Class E Violent Felony
• Three counts of Reckless Endangering 1^stDegree, a Class E Violent Felony
• Two counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child, a Class G Felony
• Two counts of Conspiracy 2^nd Degree, a Class G Felony
• One count of False Statement to Police, a Class G Felony

Charles Vinson:

• Three counts of Child Abuse 1^st Degree, a Class B Violent Felony
• Two counts of Kidnapping 1^st Degree, a Class B Violent Felony
• One count of Assault 2^nd Degree, a Class D Violent Felony
• Two counts of Act of Intimidation, a Class D Felony
• Two counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child, a Class G Felony
• Two counts of Conspiracy 2^nd Degree, a Class G Felony
• One count of Child Abuse 3^rd Degree, a Class A Misdemeanor

One of the children was 10 years old during the abuse; the other was abused from age 11 to age 13. Both defendants will be sentenced by a Superior Court judge in January. Mary Vinson faces a minimum sentence of 30 years, up to 444 years in prison. Charles Vinson faces a minimum sentence of 10 years, up to 158 years in prison. Their sentences were secured by Deputy Attorneys General Erik Towne, Kristin Dewalt, and Kathleen Dickerson, with the support of DOJ Social Worker Rebecca Scott; Legal Assistant Nicole Rollins; Administrative Assistant Alexandra Spedden; and DOJ Investigators Pete Fraley and Brian Daly. The investigation into the Vinsons’ crimes was led by Delaware State Police Troop 3 Detective Jennifer Lloyd, with assistance from Troop 3 Major Crimes Unit and the High Tech Crimes Unit.

Attorney General Jennings joined a multistate coalition of attorneys general announcing a $10 million settlement with payment processor ACI Worldwide over a 2021 testing error that led to the attempted unauthorized withdrawal of $2.3 billion from the accounts of mortgage-holders.

This case was investigated and negotiated with the state financial regulators. The state regulators have entered into a separate agreement with ACI for an additional $10 million.

ACI Payments, a subsidiary of ACI Worldwide Corp., is a payment processor for a variety of third-party clients, including mortgage servicers. Nationstar Mortgage, known publicly as Mr. Cooper, offered ACI’s Speedpay product to its customers so they could schedule and electronically pay their monthly mortgage payments through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) system. On April 23, 2021, ACI was testing the Speedpay platform when it erroneously submitted live Mr. Cooper consumer data into the ACH system. This resulted in ACI erroneously attempting to withdraw mortgage payments from hundreds of thousands of Mr. Cooper customers on a day that was not authorized or expected. In many cases, consumers were subjected to the attempted withdrawal of multiple mortgage payments from their personal bank accounts. While the vast majority of withdrawals did not ultimately go through or were reversed, 1.4 million transactions totaling $2.3 billion were processed, impacting 477,000 Mr. Cooper customers. While ACI took corrective steps to minimize the impact of the testing error, in some cases consumers were not able to access the money at issue and were forced to incur overdraft or insufficient funds fees. Impacted consumers have received restitution from ACI and through other related settlements.

“This was excellent work on the part of our office and our partners,” said Attorney General Jennings. “We will continue to honor our commitment to protecting our community; if companies doing business in Delaware harm consumers, they will pay a price.”

The investigation determined that the April 2021 incident was possible due to significant defects in ACI’s privacy and data security procedures and technical infrastructure related to the Speedpay platform. In addition to the $20 million payment to the states, today’s settlement requires ACI to take steps to avoid any future incidents, including requiring ACI to use artificially created data rather than real consumer data when testing systems or software, and requiring ACI to segregate any testing or development work from its consumer payment systems.

This matter was handled for the Delaware Department of Justice by the Fraud and Consumer Protection Division’s Consumer Protection Unit.

Attorney General Jennings announced today that Delaware, along with 32 other attorneys general, has reached a settlement with healthcare clearinghouse Inmediata for a coding issue that exposed the protected health information (“PHI”) of approximately 1.5 million consumers for almost three years. Under the settlement, Inmediata has agreed to overhaul its data security and breach notification practices and make a $1.4 million payment to states. Delaware will receive $15,470 from the settlement.

As a healthcare clearinghouse, Inmediata facilitates transactions between healthcare providers and insurers across the United States. On January 15, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights alerted Inmediata that PHI maintained by Inmediata was available online and had been indexed by search engines. As a result, sensitive patient information could be viewed through online searches, and potentially downloaded by anyone with access to an internet search engine.

Although Inmediata was alerted to the breach on January 15, 2019, Inmediata delayed notification to impacted consumers for over three months and sent misaddressed notices. Further, the notices were far from clear—many consumers complained that without sufficient details or context, they had no idea why Inmediata had their data, which may have caused recipients to dismiss the notices as illegitimate.

Today’s settlement resolves allegations of the attorneys general that Inmediata violated state consumer protection laws, breach notification laws, and HIPAA by failing to implement reasonable data security, including failing to conduct a secure code review at any point prior to the breach, and then failing to provide affected consumers with timely and complete information regarding the breach, as required by law.

Under the settlement, Inmediata has agreed to strengthen its data security and breach notification practices going forward, including implementation of a comprehensive information security program with specific security requirements include code review and crawling controls, development of an incident response plan including specific policies and procedures regarding consumer notification letters, and annual third-party security assessments for five years.

This matter was handled for the Delaware Department of Justice by the Fraud and Consumer Protection Division’s Consumer Protection Unit. Additional information regarding data security breaches can be found on the Department of Justice’s website.

Prosecutors have convicted a Delmar man for the murder of Cpl. Keith Heacook in April 2021. Randon Wilkerson, 32, will serve the rest of his life in prison following a stipulated non-jury trial in which he was convicted of 16 charges, including two counts of Murder 1^st Degree and 11 other felonies.

“Cpl. Keith Heacook served his Department and his community honorably and faithfully for more than two decades,” said Attorney General Kathy Jennings. “He was stolen from us far too soon. We lost that day a father, a husband, a brother, a son, a public servant, and a protector.  In the days following his murder, and the vicious assault on two elderly victims, we committed that the Defendant would be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Today, thanks to the tireless work of our prosecutors and law enforcement, that promise can be fulfilled. Cpl. Heacook’s family, his brothers and sisters in Delmar PD, and the entire community of Delmar are in our hearts today.”

On the morning of April 25, 2021, 22-year Delmar Police Department veteran Cpl. Keith Heacook responded to a 911 call for a domestic incident. Upon arrival to the residence, Heacook was viciously attacked by Wilkerson and was later found unconscious, having suffered multiple blows to the head. He died of his injuries later that week, leaving behind his wife, four children, and a devastated community. Wilkerson was later arrested and charged with Heacook’s murder, in addition to the severe assault of the two elderly victims that morning.

Prosecutors convicted Wilkerson Monday of the following charges:

• Two counts of Murder 1^st Degree
• Five counts of Possession of a Deadly Weapon During the Commission of a Felony
• Three counts of Possession of a Deadly Weapon by a Person Prohibited
• Two counts of Assault 1^st Degree
• Burglary 1^st Degree
• Assault 3^rd Degree
• Terroristic Threatening
• Offensive Touching

Wilkerson’s conviction was secured by Deputy Attorneys General David Hume, Amanda Nyman, and John Donahue with support from Lead Victim Service Specialist Deirdre Hudson and Paralegal Kristan Hudson, following an investigation led by Det. Mark K. Csapo of the Delaware State Police Homicide Unit.