Prosecution concludes in Mickey Thompson case

One month after beginning, prosecutors wrapped up their case Thursday against Michael Goodwin, the spurned race promoter on trial in the slayings of motor sports legend Mickey Thompson and his wife.

For jurors in the Pasadena courtroom, things ended the way they began. The last witness, Thompson’s nephew, testified that he heard Goodwin threaten the life of his aunt and uncle two months before they were killed. At the start of the trial, witnesses also testified that they heard Goodwin make threats.

It took authorities 11 years to file charges against Goodwin, who by all accounts was the prime suspect from the day the couple was found repeatedly shot, execution-style, outside their home in the gated community of Bradbury on March 16, 1988.

“I would say things have gone smoothly,” said the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Alan Jackson.

Goodwin, inventor of supercross, and Thompson, the first man to exceed 400 mph on land, had joined forces in 1986 to promote indoor motor sports competitions on dirt tracks. They soon had a falling out, and Thompson won lawsuits that bankrupted Goodwin, who prosecutors contend arranged the executions out of revenge.

Faced with seven witnesses who said they heard Goodwin threaten Thompson, the defense has stressed the absence of evidence connecting him to the scene of the crime.

Elena Saris, a deputy public defender, is expected to continue to attack the police investigation.

“The gaping hole in their case is the part that connects Michael to the crime,” Saris said Thursday.

One surprise was the absence of the final witness to testify at the preliminary hearing two years ago, a woman who had lived with Goodwin in Colorado and said he had confessed to her. She was the only witness to testify that Goodwin said he killed Thompson and his wife, Trudy.

The triggermen, two men on bicycles, have never been identified or arrested.

Jackson declined to comment on the absence of the witness. Saris said the difference between the 2004 hearing and the trial was the witness’ medical records.

“At the preliminary hearing, we did not have her psychiatric records,” Saris said. “Now we do.”

She did not elaborate.

Thompson was known nationwide for his bravura racing feats, as a pitchman for specialty auto parts and as a pioneering promoter who brought dirt track racing to Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Diego.

Lawyers said the case could be in the hands of the jury by the end of next week.

john.spano@latimes.com