HOUSTON — The man who killed an 18-year-old woman in 2022 was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Henry David Cossette, 29, strangled Sara Ann Goodwin on Feb. 6, 2022, dismembered her body and dumped her remains in a rural area off Beltway 8.
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Cossette was arrested about two weeks later when he admitted to the murder after he tried to kill himself.
The murder
On the night of the murder, Cossette picked up Goodwin along the Bissonnet Track and brought her to his Alief-area apartment.
Goodwin had a friend track her location. It showed that Goodwin was around Cossett's apartment complex for several hours before it went dead.
Evidence showed that once they got to his apartment, Cossette got on top of her and strangled her.
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After she was killed, Cossette went to the store and bought black trash bags. He went back to his apartment and dismembered Goodwin's body in the bathtub and put her body parts in the trash bags. He dumped the bags along Beltway 8 about 13 miles away from his apartment.
Once Goodwin's phone went dead, her friend who had been tracking her location called the police and filed a missing person report.
Suicide attempt
About two weeks after the murder, Cossette tried to kill himself by setting a fire in his third-floor apartment.
Neighbors called 911 due to the smoke and first responders and firefighters were able to put the fire out.
Cossette told them that he was trying to kill himself because he killed Goodwin. He admitted to dumping her remains and told them where to find the bags.
"This young woman, who had her whole life ahead of her, was brutally murdered for no reason by a man who then tried to cover it all up," Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. "And then he selfishly put everyone in his apartment complex at risk by starting a fire that could have killed others instead of taking responsibility for his acts."
An autopsy confirmed that Goodwin was strangled.
The trial
Cossette was convicted after a two-day bench trial. A judge issued his sentence.
Assistant District Attorney Helen Le said the trial wasn't about determining if Cossette was actually guilty.
"He tried to burn down his apartment in order to kill himself, and then police and HFD got called out and he told them all he felt guilty about what he did," Le said. "Guilt or innocence was never the issue in this case."
Dana Nazarova, a chief in the DA’s Homicide Division, noted that Goodwin was so young.
"This young lady had her whole life ahead of her and did not deserve to lose her life," Nazarova said. "She didn’t have a chance to fight back, and it was this defendant’s intentional acts that killed her — he was on top of her, choking her as she took her last breath."
Authorities said that Cossette's appearance likely didn't cause Goodwin much concern when he picked her up.
