LIMA — A Lima man who has gained a certain amount of local notoriety for his sweet potato pies and his affiliation with the “Shark Tank” television show appeared in Allen County Common Pleas Court on Thursday and accepted a negotiated deal from prosecutors that will resolve some of his legal woes.
Other criminal charges pending against him, however, will likely be settled at trial at a later date.
Calvin Goode, 54, of Lima, was indicted in August 2016 on two counts of trafficking in marijuana, with a firearm specification and specifications calling for the forfeiture of a gun and money; possession of marijuana with a firearm specification; and two counts of having a weapon while under disability.
In a separate incident from earlier this year, Goode was charged with aggravated robbery with firearm specifications, a first-degree felony.
Goode appeared in court Thursday with his court-appointed attorney, Greg Donohue, and seemingly was prepared to enter guilty pleas to two separate deals offered by prosecutors that would have wrapped up the two cases pending against him. But when Judge Jeffrey Reed asked Goode if that was the path he wanted to take, the defendant said it was not.
“I will face up to my marijuana charge,” Goode told the judge. “I know what I did was wrong. But the robbery … that’s something I didn’t do.”
Reed then separated the two cases and again asked Goode if he wished to plead guilty to a deal from prosecutors that called for him to plead guilty to possession of marijuana and having a weapon while under disability, both third-degree felonies. Goode indicated it was his desire to do so.
Under the terms of the agreement, the state will seek a maximum prison sentence of four years, along with the forfeiture of a gun and $2,013 in cash. Sentencing was set for Jan. 8.
Outside the courthouse, Goode spoke openly about his checkered past, saying he has turned his life around after spending nearly two decades in prison earlier in his life for selling hard drugs on the street.
Admitting that he continued to “smoke a little pot” every now and then, Goode nonetheless became a local entrepreneur when his California Goode Sweet Potato Pies caught the attention of a firm called Idea Buyers, a partner of the television show “Shark Tank.” Goode bakes the pies at his residence — up to 100 of them each day — and Idea Buyers, which supplied start-up capital for Goode’s business, handles the distribution end of the business.
The pies, made from a recipe Goode said he learned from his grandmother, are available at several locations in and around Lima.
Goode said if he is sent to prison, his daughter, Antoinette, will keep the business thriving.
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