Hercules man was on pretrial release in Oakland murder case when he allegedly killed a man in San Jose

OAKLAND — James Goodman didn’t show up to court on May 13 but he didn’t have to; prosecutors had already lost confidence in their murder case against him, now the only thing left for them to do was make it official and dismiss the charges.

Goodman, 39, had been out of custody since August 2024, despite the pending murder case, but after that May hearing he no longer had the burden of a potential life sentence hanging over his head. There was just one problem; according to San Jose police, Goodman had killed a man on Sunnyside Drive just 11 days before the Oakland murder case was dismissed.

Now Goodman is in a Santa Clara County jail, facing murder charges once again. He and co-defendant Devinae Mitchell, 26, are charged with killing Micheal Teghen Amuche, a 21-year-old San Jose man who was shot a little before 1 a.m. on May 2, at an apartment complex there.

Goodman, identified in court records as a resident of both Hercules and Antioch, was arrested on June 18, about a month after his Oakland murder charge was dismissed, according to police.

In the Oakland killing, prosecutors had accused Goodman of fatally shooting William Graham during a confrontation over a traffic collision in Oakland on Oct. 7, 2022. Three months earlier, he’d been accused of violating parole for a burglary conviction, after allegedly using his car to ram a vehicle containing his girlfriend and her 5-year-old child.

In the July 2022 incident, Goodman allegedly told the woman he would “have a shoot out with police” before he went back to prison. When police tracked down Goodman in 2023 and attempted to arrest him in the Graham shooting, he allegedly tried to drive away and crashed his car, with a child inside, before he was taken into custody, according to court records.

But the Alameda County District Attorney’s office ran into problems with the prosecution. There were several others present for the confrontation where Graham was killed, including one of Goodman’s relatives. Witness statements were shaky, authorities said. Finally, DNA lifting from a shell casing was found to not match Goodman, and prosecutors lost confidence in the case.

A judge had granted Goodman’s release from jail in August 2024 — unusual for someone facing a murder charge — but the case remained active until last May. By then, Goodman had a waiver on file that allowed him to miss the hearing, court records show.

San Jose police announced Goodman’s arrest in a June 23 news release, which says they are still investigating the “motive and circumstances surrounding” Amuche’s death. Both residents were tracked down in Hercules and arrested.

Mugshots of both suspects are strikingly different. Goodman stares blankly at the camera, his eyelids partially lowered. Mitchell has a distraught expression, tears rolling down her face.