GASTONIA, NC — More shocking testimony in the trial of a former high school coach accused of sex crimes with athletes on his wrestling team.
One of the accusers says Gary “Scott” Goins wanted to die, and asked him to take his life.
“You’re gonna have to shoot me.”
Those words from a third accuser for Gary Goins, accused of a slew of sex acts involving teens on his wrestling teams between 1998 and 2004.
Thursday’s testimony paints the picture of a man with a guilty conscious looking for a way out.
“The defendant asked you to help him kill himself?” asked the prosecutor
“Yes. His justification behind that was he couldn’t do it himself,” answered the accuser.
That accuser claims he and Goins had a long conversation at a local restaurant in 2013, after the investigation into the sex crimes was underway. He says the initial plan was to shoot Goins in the head.
“He told me that, ‘Well I can’t kill myself, so you’re going to help me, because I’m going to go to hell if I do. And I committed these acts against you, so you’re the one who should do it.'”
He says they ruled out using a gun, instead he choked Goins for several minutes at George Poston Park in Gastonia.
“Put the rope around his neck, I remember his body going into convulsions and him being face down in the mud. And it just sounded like [heavy breathing].”
Former wrestler Michael Allen testified that the accuser told him in 2011 about a sexual relationship with Goins that lasted from 8th grade to his freshman year in college. Allen said the admission was no surprise.
“They would insinuate Coach Goins had done stuff to him when he was younger,” says Allen.
When asked why he never went to police during the time Goins was allegedly abusing him, the accuser talked about the power his coach had over him, and his fear.
“Do I want my parents to know that the man that they trusted for all these years did all these things to me? Do I want his family to be ruined? You know, thinking about the girls that he adopted.”
The accuser says he later went to police and admitted choking Goins, but also revealed the suicide plot and sexual abuse.
Goins filed a police report saying he was assaulted. His attorney claims he was a tough coach, but never sexually abused anyone.
