The driver accused of killing a 13-year-old girl and seriously injuring her mother and a classmate in Pembroke, Massachusetts, in late December 2019 is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday morning.
Gregory Goodsell was found guilty last week on all charges in the crash that killed Claire Zisserson, who was just shy of her 14th birthday, according to the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office. He's scheduled to be sentenced at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, and numerous people are expected to give victim impact statements.
Goodsell was charged with manslaughter while operating under the influence after acknowledging to police that he had been drinking and taking cocaine at a Christmas party thrown by his boss. The Dec. 29 crash left Elizabeth Zisserson, Claire's mother, as well as her friend Kendall Zemotel, who was also 13 at the time, hospitalized.
Prosecutors described the injuries to Elizabeth Zisserson, who was driving the Subaru, and Kendall Zemotel, who was in the backseat with Claire, as catastrophic. All three of the Subaru's occupants were rushed to South Shore Hospital, and the two teenagers were taken to Boston Children's Hospital.
After 10 hours of deliberation, the jury found Goodsell, who is now 36, guilty of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter (under the influence), leaving the scene property damage and operating under the influence causing serious bodily injury.
Goodsell was behind the wheel of a pickup truck that hit Elizabeth Zisserson's Subaru on Route 139 at Church and Oak streets at about 6:50 a.m., officials have said. He had a blood alcohol content level of 0.266, well above the legal limit, and had sped through a red light at 67 mph before hitting the Subaru.
Investigators found whiskey, a beer can, nip bottles and marijuana inside Goodsell's truck.
The Zissersons were from Plymouth, where a vigil was held on what would have been Claire's 14th birthday, a week after the crash.
The crash brought scrutiny on Hi-Way Safety Systems, a highway contractor that fired Goodsell after the crash and which owned the pickup truck he'd been driving.
Goodsell allegedly acknowledged to police that he was severely impaired. Prosecutors said he told officers at the scene of the crash, "I know I shouldn't have been driving, I can't believe I did this. I drank way too much, I'm so sorry."
Smelling of alcohol, Goodsell also admitted to having taken cocaine at the company Christmas party he was coming from, prosecutors said in court. They added that witnesses said he was speeding before the crash, with one saying he passed them at about 90 mph, "the speed of lightning," in a no-passing zone.
Hi-Way Safety Systems has said it fired Goodsell, both because of the crash and repeated company violations: "unauthorized use of a company vehicle for personal use during non-work hours on the evening of December 28th and possession of alcohol in the vehicle."
Prosecutors said Goodsell had an extensive driving history involving 35 incidents, including a previous accident that led to reckless operation, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct charges.
At the vigil at Brewster Gardens in Plymouth, friends and loved ones remembered Claire Zisserson, who went to Rising Tide Charter Public School
Elizabeth Zisseron described her daughter in a statement to NBC10 Boston as a “bright, kind and caring girl with a beautiful heart…. She loved her family, her friends and her teammates. She was a ray of sunshine."
