Charges filed in racer’s death

PASADENA, Calif. — Prosecutors filed murder charges Tuesday in the long-unsolved slayings of auto racing legend Mickey Thompson and his wife, accusing the couple’s former business partner.

Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Michael Frank Goodwin, 59, with two counts of murder in the 1988 shooting deaths of Thompson and his wife, Trudy.

Goodwin has been held on murder charges in the case for more than two years in Orange County, but he could have been released as early as this month following an appeals court ruling that prosecutors there lacked jurisdiction. He had pleaded innocent.

He will be transferred to Los Angeles County and arraigned in Pasadena Superior Court, prosecutors said.

Goodwin’s attorney, Jeffrey Benice, plans to file a request to dismiss the charges. “This is nothing more than a malicious prosecution,” he said. “There’s no evidence. There’s no witnesses. There’s nothing.”

The Thompsons were attacked outside their Los Angeles home as they left for work in March 1988. Witnesses said they saw two gunmen flee on bicycles.

Thompson was the first person to travel more than 400 mph on land. self end