Court deciding whether to allow admission from murder defendant

A McHenry County judge will rule Sept. 2 whether prosecutors can play in court a videotaped interview in which a Crystal Lake man admits striking another man killed last year in what authorities called a one-punch murder.

Attorneys for Dustin P. Goy are asking the judge to prevent a jury from seeing the video, claiming police trick him into the admission by misleading him about his rights.

"Clearly they were trying to get a statement out of someone who is asking whether he is giving up his rights," Goy attorney Tim Mahoney argued in court Tuesday. "There is coercion and there is a material misstatement of what the law says."

Goy, 31, faces charges of first-degree murder and aggravated battery alleging he sucker-punched Anthony Carlsen during an early-morning altercation Sept. 9 outside a downtown Crystal Lake bar.

The punch caused Carlsen, 45, of Crystal Lake, to fall backward and strike his head on the ground, causing a brain injury he would die from a week later.

When questioned by Crystal Lake police later that day, Goy signed a waiver of his Miranda rights and then admitted striking Carlsen, court transcripts indicate.

"There's no evidence the defendant's will was overcome by intimidation or coercive tactics," Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Michael Combs said Tuesday. "(The detectives) made no promises, they made no threats to the defendant."

Goy's defense, however, claims police misled him by telling him the Miranda waiver only confirmed that he was read his rights, not that he was foregoing them.

"It was an absolute ploy used by these detectives," Mahoney said.

Goy, who could face up to 60 years in prison if found guilty of the murder, is free on $500,000 bond.