A Marshfield man convicted of second-degree murder for driving drunk and high when he struck another car in Pembroke, killing a 13-year-old girl and seriously injuring two others, has been sentenced to life in prison.
The sentence for Gregory Goodsell, 36, includes the possibility of parole after 20 years and comes after a Plymouth Superior Court Jury convicted him last week of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while operating under the influence, leaving the scene of property damage and two counts of operating under the influence causing serious bodily injury.
Goodsell will serve his life sentence for the murder charge at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center. The other offenses carry lesser sentences.
“I shamefully take responsibility for what happened,” Goodsell said during an emotional sentencing at Plymouth Superior Court on Thursday.
Goodsell, on the way home from a Christmas party the morning of Dec. 29, 2019, crashed the truck he had been driving into a Subaru on Route 139 in Pembroke, killing 13-year-old Claire Zisserson.
The two others in the Subaru, Claire’s 51-year-old mother Elizabeth Zisserson and 13-year-old friend Kendall Zemotel suffered what the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office described as “catastrophic injuries.”
“I’m so (expletive) up … I know I shouldn’t have been driving … I can’t believe I did this … I drank way too much, I’m so sorry,” Goodsell told police officers at the scene of the fatal crash around 7 that morning.
At the scene, first responders found a white Subaru with extensive front-end damage and a white Ford commercial pickup truck across the way which was flipped and had heavy passenger-side damage.
An investigation revealed that Goodsell had attended a company party and then an after-party at a home before getting behind the wheel of his “Hi-Way Safety Systems, Inc.” company truck and promptly struck a tree, breaking his passenger-side headlight.
Co-workers said that they had tried to prevent Goodsell from driving but that he ignored them, the Herald reported at the time.
Investigators determined that when he broadsided Zisserson’s Subaru after speeding through a red light at 67 mph, he had a blood alcohol content of 0.266, well in excess of the 0.08 limit, and was high on cocaine. Police found a bottle of whiskey, a beer can, two nip bottles, marijuana and a pipe inside the truck following the crash.
“Nobody should ever have to attempt to live through the pain that I’ve caused to all these people through my careless, destructive behavior,” Goodsell said Thursday, reading from a prepared statement. “If I could go back to that day and die, instead of Claire, I would in a heartbeat.”
“The constant nightmares, never being able to sleep because of what I did that morning, that is something that I will carry with me for the remainder of my life,” he added. “Sorry is an understatement. I sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart.”
Kendall Zemotel, in an impact statement read by a prosecutor in the courtroom, highlighted how the crash changed her life forever – mentally, physically, emotionally and socially.
She recounted standing “speechless” while looking at herself in the mirror for the first time at the hospital, seeing a large scar on her right cheek, under her eye, with a feeding tube coming out her nose.
“Emotionally, I think about something that I know I shouldn’t, but I really can’t help myself – what I could have done to prevent this from happening to us,” Zemotel wrote. “I could have just gone to the bathroom before we left the house that day or taken a little longer to get ready … I could have saved Claire’s life if I was a minute late to everything I did that morning.”
Claire’s mother Elizabeth Zisserson spoke about how the crash forever changed her and her family. She described herself as a “super busy mom” who juggled her children’s sports, scouts and homework while working in technology sales.
“Life was happy and busy and crazy, and we talked about the future with hope and excitement,” the mother said, “but now I function in survival mode ruled by loss, fear and grief. The car crash destroyed my life and caused a ripple effect of damage that can never be undone.”
“After Claire died, I didn’t want to live,” she added. “The ache of Claire’s loss is overwhelming to me.”
Judge Diane Freniere also ordered Goodsell to an eight-year sentence for seriously injuring Zemotel which will run concurrently with a six-year sentence for injuring Elizabeth Zisserson – both of which will follow the murder sentence.
Goodsell will serve 12 years for manslaughter, concurrently with the murder sentence. He will be placed on probation for leaving the scene if he receives parole.
“Judicial discretion does not commit to the court to assign a value to a victim’s life because every human life is incalculable,” Freniere said. “I have considered the life of an innocent, remarkable bright light, Claire Zisserson, a 13-year-old girl beloved by her family, and a compassionate and kind friend who was taken because of your criminal conduct.”
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