Family member’s eviction attempt ends in flames

A family member evicted an elderly Oklahoma City couple from their home, and instead of leaving peacefully, the geriatric man living there set himself and the home on fire.

He and the family dog died in the blaze. His wife was pulled to safety by sheriff’s deputies.

On April 1, two Oklahoma City deputies arrived at the home of Mary Goulding, 77, and Anthony Goulding, 82, at 10602 Flamingo Ave., to forcibly remove the couple. The Gouldings had been married for 25 years.

A bodycam video from one of the deputies shows the deputy approaching a bedroom and shouting to Anthony Goulding to stop, as Goulding poured gasoline in the bedroom and hallway.

Anthony Goulding can be heard saying, “You ready?”

Once Goulding was inside the bedroom, he doused the area around him, leaned down and lit the fuel, which burst into flames. He didn’t appear to try to escape. Both the man and the couple’s dog died in the inferno.

As the fire engulfed the rest of the house, the two deputies dragged Mary Goulding from the burning home to safety.

That tragedy came less than one month after Judge April D. Collins entered an eviction judgment against Anthony and Mary Goulding.

The eviction case was filed by Timothy Denny, Mary Goulding’s son.

“I’ve got 48 hours to move out, I guess,” Goulding said after his March 11 hearing.

He said he didn’t know where he and his wife would move. She has Parkinson’s Disease, he said, and he was eager to get home to her.

“I guess we’ll have to go out to the streets,” Anthony Goulding said.

At the Oklahoma County Courthouse the day of the eviction hearing, Anthony Goulding stood alone before the judge, representing himself in the lawsuit.

Denny had retained legal counsel from Robert Goldman, one of Oklahoma County’s most prolific eviction attorneys.

“There were no arguments for stopping the eviction,” said Michael Figgins, executive director of Legal Aid Services Oklahoma, in an email to Oklahoma Watch. “LASO pleaded with the lawyer for the stepson to allow for more time to find a new location to no avail.”

Mary Goulding had signed the deed of the home over to Denny in 2013. The couple were paying $700 per month to Denny for rent.

Timothy Denny spoke by phone with Oklahoma Watch on March 14. He said he was evicting his mother and her husband as a last-ditch attempt to get his mother into skilled nursing care.

He shared with Oklahoma Watch a medical assessment that listed heavy use of alcohol and alcohol use disorder as a condition Mary Goulding suffers. Denny said she was a heavy smoker and resisted leaving her home because she couldn’t drink in a skilled nursing facility and would have to go outside to smoke.

Denny said he and his siblings have for years been trying to persuade Mary Goulding to move out of the house and into a place where she could receive the care she needed. Most recently, in December, he said he served the couple a first notice to leave. Anthony Goulding verified that the day of his eviction hearing.

“Ultimately, it was the last effort that we could take to force the situation, that actually happened late last week, to get her admitted to some place,” Denny told Oklahoma Watch. “We knew she needed to go somewhere.”

Neither Anthony Goulding nor Timothy Denny acknowledged each other as family due to years of apparent discord.

Denny said the couple had nearly destroyed the home and it would cost him more than $30,000 to repair the house if he wanted to sell it. That damage isn’t apparent in the bodycam video.

Deputies had been working with the family to arrange a stay at a hotel for a few weeks until they could find another living arrangement. Uber was waiting outside the house to take them to the hotel when Anthony Goulding set the house ablaze.

“You’re taking someone’s home away,” said Sheriff Tommie Johnson III during a press conference about the incident. “That’s their last stand. If you’re taking that away from somebody, talk about a whirlwind of emotions.”

Timothy Denny is the founder and CEO of Onward Fleet Solutions and owns Holiday Bowling Center in Oklahoma City. Mary Goulding is now being cared for in a skilled nursing home, Denny said.

Oklahoma Watch (OklahomaWatch.org) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.