The Murder of Trey Zwicker

This is one of the most confusing cases that I have ever tried to research. In fact, I attempted to do it one other time but became overwhelmed and frustrated at all of the issues at hand. A social worker involved in the case was quoted as saying that this was one of the most dysfunctional family situations that she had ever dealt with. While I agree that the dysfunction was a huge issue in my research as it led from one strange fact to another, it was only part of the issues I had in keeping things straight.

Around 1996 Angelina Young and Joshua Gouker had a son. He was also named Joshua but did not carry his fathers surname. He maintained his mother's maiden name. So father and son were both name Joshua but they had different last names. For purposes of this blog I will use the phrases “Big Josh” and “Little Josh” to try and lessen the confusion, if that is at all possible. About a year or so after Little Josh was born there was another boy born in the Louisville Kentucky area. This little boy would be named Terrance Zwicker III and would go by the name of Trey. Trey's parents were Terrance “Terry” Jr. and Amanda (her maiden name may have been Campbell, but I cannot be certain as I have seen several surnames connected to her). It appears that all of the adults had known each other since they were children, whether they liked each other or not. At some point Terry Zwicker dated Angelina Young although when that occurred is not clear. By 2011 Angelina had died, Terry Zwicker was married to someone else and Big Josh and Amanda were married although I cannot say exactly when that occurred.

Angelina died on Easter Sunday of 2010 of what was said to be a drug overdose. Little Josh had apparently discovered his mothers body. Angelina had two other children according to her obituary and I cannot say what became of them, but since Big Josh was incarcerated at the time of her death Little Josh ended up in the foster care system. This was not the first time that Big Josh had been incarcerated, and it would surely not be the last. I was able to determine through the Kentucky Department of Corrections website that he had a long list of crimes and I am also absolutely certain they were not all listed.

The first crime shown for Big Josh on the Kentucky DOC site is an escape charge that occurred in December of 2001. Now, obviously he was incarcerated at the time for something, somewhere in order to get the escape charge so that alone tells me that he had done something prior to that. Then the way the DOC record reads it appears that he was not caught for several months. He would be sentenced in December 2002 for the escape and several other crimes that had been committed while he was on the run that included theft, unlawful imprisonment, assault on a police officer and another assault charge. These crimes appear to have occurred between January and October of 2002. At that time he was give four four year sentences and a two year sentence. The website did not show a “release” date so it is unclear how the sentences were given as far as concurrent or consecutively. But, then in July of 2004 he was sentenced on three charges that had occurred in September of 2002 that included intimidation, 2^nd degree assault and robbery. He received three more five year sentences. I can only assume that considering he was incarcerated at least from April to September of 2010 that he was still serving his time from these crimes or had committed some parole violation which definitely does not seem out of the realm of possibility.

What we do know is that Big Josh got out of prison in September of 2010 and despite the fact that Little Josh seemed to finally be doing well with his foster family, Susan and Chuck Stoneburger, he filed for custody. This was granted to him in March of 2011. By all accounts Little Josh, who was fifteen at the time, idolized his father. But then again, what teenager would not want to be with a parent who apparently supplied him and shared marijuana with him on a daily basis and really had no business caring for another person when it seemed obvious he could do little to care for himself.

It is not clear when Big Josh and Amanda were married, or for how long. Amanda's mother would later say that the two had known each other since Amanda was thirteen and that she was all but obsessed with him. My research would only say that they were “on and off” quite often. According to testimony given in court by Amanda it appears that at the very least by December of 2010 Big Josh was living with is cousin, Cassie Gouker who lived only two doors down from Amanda. It was also later said that Big Josh and cousin Cassie also had an “on again, off again” sexual relationship. We also know, according to later court testimony that both Big Josh and Little Josh were still living with Cassie in May of 2011. And yet, there were still apparently the times that Big Josh stayed at Amanda's home with her two children. Amanda would testify that in December of 2010 she was pregnant with a child that obviously, or I should say at least she claimed, belonged to Big Josh. She would claim that at some point while he was at Cassie's home he apparently accidentally dialed her number on his phone and she overheard a conversation between Big Josh and Cassie. She stated that within the conversation she heard him say that she (Amanda) was “expendable” and she took this to mean that he did not care what happened to her. She claims that this conversation prompted her to have an abortion. It was never clear exactly when she informed Big Josh that she had done this or how he found out, but prosecutors, and allegedly Big Josh would claim this played a large role in what would later happen.

In the early afternoon of May 11, 2011 a teacher at a local high school in Louisville took the kids outside for a break. They were walking along the end of the school property near a ditch with a creek when one of the students discovered a body. It would quickly be determined that the body belonged to fourteen year old Trey Zwicker and his family was notified. Big Josh would give authorities their first lead in the investigation when he mentioned that there was group of boys from the neighborhood in which seemed to have issues with Trey. Investigators looked into this angle but nothing seemed to pan out. According to Amanda she had last seen Trey the night before about ten when she sent him back to bed. She would tell authorities that on that night Big Josh spent the night with her and sometime after having sex the two had gone to a convenient store where they bought cigarettes. The convenient store had a video camera that confirmed at least that part of the story. However, a quick trip to a convenient store does not necessarily mean a whole lot.

The medical examiner would determine that Trey had been beaten to death with what he described as a “rod like” object and had likely been left in the ditch to die sometime in the early morning hours of May 11^th. No weapon was found at the scene, nor in the next few years. In fact, to this day there is some question as to exactly what sort of weapon was used.

It seems that by the time the funeral was conducted a few days later there were questions about with Little Josh, or Big Josh could have been involved. They made things worse when they left town just after the funeral. Soon after Amanda got a protective order against Big Josh and indicated that she suspected that he was involved in the death of her son. By the time father and son were found in Alabama a few people had already talked to authorities and claimed that Little Josh had confessed to murdering Trey. One of those people was Cassie Gouker, Big Josh's cousin and sometime lover, who had allowed father and son to live with her. Another person was Big Josh's mother, Ruby Jessie. Later the question would not only be whether the witnesses were telling the truth but if they had heard Little Josh confess themselves or if they had only had Big Josh tell them of Little Josh's confession.

On June 23, 2011, just over a month after Trey Zwicker was murdered both Little Josh and Big Josh were arrested in Alabama. They had been caught when Big Josh had allegedly held a gun to a woman and ordered her to drive them to a destination. Authorities would later say that the plan had been to eventually leave the country. Little Josh was arrested and extradited back to Kentucky where he was charged with murder and tampering with evidence. Big Josh was being charged in Alabama for the attempted kidnapping and once that was settled he was to be sent to Kentucky to face more charges himself. He was not being charged with the murder of Trey but he was being charged with other things related to the fact that he had gone on the run with his minor son, as well as violations to his own probation and such.

While Little Josh sat in jail in Kentucky and prosecutors prepared to charge his as an adult, authorities in Alabama decided they could not make the charges against Big Josh stick. Apparently the woman that he had allegedly tried to kidnap and held a gun to had been someone he had once been sexually involved with and the case seemed to fall apart. However, instead of sending him to Kentucky as they were supposed to do, they simply released him. At some point it was speculated that he was also arrested in Indiana for something but they too released him, if he was ever really there. Eventually the FBI was called in and he would be found. My research was not specific but it sounded as if he went back to the Louisville area and that was where he was eventually found.

Then, as quickly as their case against Little Josh had been established it began to fall apart. Initially it seems that upon his arrest Big Josh stated his son had also confessed to him that he had murdered Trey although there never seemed to be any sort of motive established for Little Josh to have done this own his own. Then, Big Josh changed his story. He would then claim that Little Josh was not involved in the murder of Trey but that he had committed the murder himself, alone. Big Josh even gave the authorities the motive behind the murder. Well, actually it seems that he gave two motives and possibly at different times. He would claim that an argument had ensued because Trey had allegedly stolen from him and that he had taken Trey to the creek to confront him. Some reports say that Trey allegedly stole a lighter and a plate of food while other reports claim that it was not food, but marijuana from Big Josh that was taken. It is unclear if he continued to stick with this motive and simply added another or if he changed the motive behind the crime. Later he would say that he had murdered Trey to get back at Amanda for the abortion she had several months prior saying they were now “even.” Big Josh would alleged that he had beaten Trey with a pipe and had left him to die in the ditch in the early morning hours.

So now the prosecutors had a problem. They had one man confessing to the crime of murder and claiming he acted alone, while they still had a fifteen year old boy who they had charged as an adult. Cassie Gouker was seemingly still sticking to her story that Little Josh had confessed to her. She would claim that he had come to her around 1:30 in the morning and told her that he had beaten Trey with a baseball bat and wanted her to take him somewhere to get rid of the bat and his bloody clothing. The problem with this alleged confession is that a bat, nor bloody clothing were ever found and she had no more information than this supposed confession. In addition to that she would also later say in court that Big Josh had talked about murdering Trey for nearly a month prior to the murder. Ruby Jessie, Big Josh's mother, would later tell the media and the court that her son was a “monster” and that he had set his son up to take the fall for a murder that he (Big Josh) had committed and she no longer felt that her grandson was guilty. It is unclear how she reconciled her statements that Little Josh had confessed to her.

In July of 2012 Big Josh was charged with murder, wanton endangerment, unlawful transaction with a minor, tampering with evidence, torture of a dog or cat and for being a persistent felony offender. The charges against Little Josh were reduced from murder and tampering with evidence to conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to tamper with evidence. I did a search on what conspiracy to tamper with evidence meant and I could find nothing that defined this but it was in written this way in several articles that I read. The conspiracy to commit murder charge basically meant that Little Josh knew his dad was going to murder Trey and he did nothing to stop it. In my opinion if they were going to charge Little Josh with this then they should have at the very least also charged Cassie Gouker with this also. It is not as if anyone could have really stopped the determined criminal, Josh Gouker, but it seems to me that Cassie would have had more and better options to do so as well as the maturity in knowing how to handle it compared to a fifteen year old boy.

Initially it seems that prosecutors were going to put father and son on trial together. But, on May 10, 2013 Big Josh pleaded guilty and repeated his story that he acted alone. On July 26, 2013 he was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of twenty years served, for the murder of Trey Zwicker. He was also given a ten year sentence for possession of a handgun by a felon and five years each on charges of unlawful transaction with a minor and the torture of a dog or cat. The latter charges apparently stemmed from an incident in which he had beaten the family dog to death with a bat and in another incident in which he allegedly threw a cat from a second story window. The Kentucky DOC states that he is eligible for parol in October of 2031.

A few days later Little Josh went on trial to face his charges. By now he was seventeen years old. Big Josh testified at his trial and maintained that he committed the murders and had done so alone. Cassie Gouker testified although as I have stated her testimony seemed to be contradictory. Amanda, who was now going by the surname of McFarland, also testified about the night of the murder although it is not completely clear what she added as far as evidence. There was also apparently another witness who testified for the state named John Robertson. He has been described as Cassie Gouker's boyfriend who by the sounds of things lived with her also at the time of the murder. It is not clear what Robertson had to contribute and I likely would not have mentioned him at all if there was not an incident several months later involving him.

In the end the prosecution really had nothing against Little Josh other than the alleged confession that Cassie Gouker testified to. The defense would argue that while the prosecution still attempted to say that Little Josh had committed this crime using a bat, that the medical examiner all but helped their case when he testified that he weapon, although never found, was a “rod-like” item and they argued that the pipe described by Big Josh qualified while the baseball bat would not. After a ten day trial the jury returned with a verdict of not guilty on all charges. Little Josh and his family were relieved but Trey Zwicker's family was furious. Despite everything they still believed that Little Josh had committed the murder whether it was for his own reasons or at the behest of his father. They believed that the jury had set a murderer free.

It didn't seem to take long before Little Josh was back in the news. Upon his acquittal he was released back into the custody of Susan and Chuck Stoneburger. About a month later they reported him missing as he had basically ran away from their home. Little Josh reached out to authorities to let them know he was not missing and was fine and the Stoneburger's decided not to force the issue since he would soon be eighteen.

In April of 2014 Little Josh was arrested. It seems that he had come across, or sought out, John Robertson, Cassie Gouker's boyfriend and had a confrontation with him over his testimony at the trial. It was said that he punched and choked Robertson and then returned to the home that he shared with his girlfriend and proceeded to assault her. By this time after repeatedly stating that his son was not involved in Trey's murder Big Josh was coming out and saying that he had lied in court and in his plea and was once again blaming Little Josh for the murder saying that he had simply tried to spare his son. Within a few months he was asking the courts to set aside his guilty plea. It does appears that this effort was denied.

In October of 2014 Little Josh pleaded guilty to the charges against him related to Robertson and received a sentence of 120 days in jail. In April of 2016 he was pulled over while in the possession of a stolen vehicle. It is unclear what happened with that case or if it was still pending when he was once again arrested in January of 2017. It was then that he was pulled over in a car with two other people. Initially they were pulled over because Little Josh was a passenger seen not wearing a seat belt. The officer involved smelled marijuana in the car, called for a drug dog and back up. Marijuana, meth and paraphernalia were all found in the vehicle. All three occupants were arrested. Little Josh was charged with first degree trafficking a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon (from his 2014 conviction), and the minor charge of failure to wear a seat belt. They always say it is the dumb things that get you caught for the big things.

Strangely I have been unable to determine what came of these cases with Little Josh or if they are still pending in some manner. I have checked both the Kentucky DOC and the Federal Inmate list and cannot find any inmates matching his information. It seems that the Kentucky DOC only shows current inmates. If they are an active inmate then their criminal history is available but if they are not an active inmate nothing seems to be found. I also checked the county jails of McCracken County, where it was stated he was living in 2017, as well as Jefferson County where his arrest occurred. I could not find him anywhere.

Some could say that the fact that Little Josh has continued to have issues with the law points to the fact that he was guilty when it came to the murder of Trey Zwicker. Others could argue just as easily that Little Josh's issues are a result of his upbringing as well as the trauma brought on by all the things surrounding his incarceration of two years and the trial. I admit that I am partially on the fence with both of these things. There was a moment that I leaned for a second towards the first idea. While doing my research I came across a Joshua Young who was on trial for shooting his landlord in Kentucky. At first I thought it was possibly this same Joshua Young but I determined that does not seem to be the case. Every time that Little Josh hit the news they were very quick to point out that he was acquitted of murdering his stepbrother in 2013. I highly doubt that if the man who murdered his landlord was the same Joshua Young that it would have been the first time the media failed to make the connection. The headline would have likely have announced that man previously acquitted for murder was facing the charge again.

With that said I tend to lean more to the fact that Little Josh's issues have more to do with his upbringing and all of the things brought on with the trial. I say this in part because his crimes since his acquittal have been fairly minor ones. It does not appear that he faced charges in the assault on his girlfriend and without more details I cannot say what specifically occurred. This leaves us with the assault on John Robertson, the car theft, and the drug possession charges. As is the case with the girlfriend I cannot say what the details were in the assault on Robertson. The media made a big deal over the fact that his victim had testified against him at trial.

I am sure there are those who now point to the fact that Big Josh has changed his story again and is implicating his son again in attempts to vacate his guilty plea. My answer to that is that I do not believe that Big Josh can be believed no matter what story he decides to tell. He has ruined all credibility in my opinion with his changing stories. Keep in mind that he first told authorities that a group of teenagers were responsibility for Trey's murder, then the told them that his son had done it, then he confessed that he had done it and had done it alone. It was not until several months after his guilty plea, and his testimony at Little Josh's trial that he once again changed his story, now implicating his son again. Of course Little Josh can never technically be tried again for Trey's murder due to his acquittal due to double jeopardy laws. Although, I do admit that there may be a loophole somewhere in the law since he was tried for conspiracy to commit murder and not an actual murder charge. The sentencing result would have been the same so I cannot say for sure what the authorities could have or could have not done. It is probable that Big Josh, and through his attorney's believe even if there was a way to charge Little Josh that the prosecutors would not do so and this is simply an attempt for both father and son not to be incarcerated for the crime.

If Big Josh is paroled in 2031 when he first becomes eligible he will only be fifty-two years old. According to the Kentucky DOC his maximum sentence is “Life” but I am unsure exactly what that means in Kentucky as it is different in each state. It is possible that it could mean that he will never be released. In my opinion that is probably the best solution for everyone.