St. Joseph man will not be charged in fatal Oct. stabbing

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- Charges won't be filed against an apartment resident who stabbed a mentally ill man to death in October when the man threatened the apartment manager.

Minutes before the fatal stabbing, police said 49-year-old Randall Goff had used gasoline to start a fire during the robbery of a convenience store.

Buchanan County prosecutor Dwight Scroggins said in a news release Friday that a review of the evidence showed that Robert Johnson, 41, of St. Joseph, was protecting himself and the manager when he killed Goff.

"We therefore determine the death to be justifiable homicide and no charges will be filed," he said.

Relatives have said the violent behavior at the apartment complex and a short time before that at Wood's Mini-Mart, about eight blocks away, resulted from Goff not taking medication for his mental illness.

Police said Goff had entered the convenience store carrying a gasoline container and demanded money. A store videotape showed him pouring gas on the counter and igniting it after a clerk opened the cash register and gave him money. Police said Goff also tried to set fire to the gas pumps.

The two employees who were in the store were not hurt.

Goff then returned to the Robidoux Apartments in St. Joseph, where he threatened manager John Pitluck with a knife. After hearing calls for help, Johnson confronted Goff, who had lived at the complex for about a month.

Goff was stabbed in the ensuing struggle and later died.

"I still feel sad that I had to take someone's life. I didn't mean for it to happen," Johnson said. "But if I would have ignored the situation, something bad might have happened and people could have possibly been killed."