Marshfield man sentenced to life in prison for killing Pembroke girl in OUI crash

A Marshfield man convicted of second-degree murder for driving drunk when he crashed into another car in Pembroke, killing a 13-year-old girl and seriously injuring two others, was sentenced to prison in life.

The sentence handed down to 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, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle while operating under the influence, leaving the scene of property damage and two counts of driving under the influence resulting in serious bodily injury.

Goodsell will serve his life sentence for murder at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center. Other offenses carry lesser penalties.

“I shamefully take responsibility for what happened,” Goodsell said during an emotional sentencing in Plymouth Superior Court Thursday.

Goodsell, while driving home from a Christmas party on the morning of Dec. 29, 2019, crashed the truck he was driving into a Subaru on Route 139 in Pembroke, killing 13-year-old Claire Zisserson.

The other two people in the Subaru, Claire’s mother Elizabeth Zisserson, 51, and her friend Kendall Zemotel, 13, suffered what the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office described as severe injuries. “catastrophic injuries”.

“I’m so (expletive) up… I know I shouldn’t have driven… I can’t believe I did that… I drank way too much, I’m so sorry,” Goodsell told police at the scene of the incident. the fatal accident around 7 a.m.

At the scene, first responders found a white Subaru with extensive front-end damage and a white Ford commercial van across the road that was overturned and sustained heavy damage to the passenger side.

An investigation revealed that Goodsell attended a company party and then an after-party at a house before getting behind the wheel of his “Hi-Way Safety Systems, Inc.” company truck and promptly struck a tree, shattering his passenger side headlight.

Co-workers said they tried to stop Goodsell from driving, but he ignored them, the Herald reported at the time.

Investigators determined that when he hit Zisserson’s Subaru after going through a red light at 67 mph, he had a blood alcohol level of 0.266, well over the limit of 0.08, and heavy drinking. of cocaine. Police found a bottle of whiskey, a can of beer, two bottles of pop, marijuana and a pipe inside the truck after the crash.

“No one should ever have to try to experience the pain I have caused all of these people through my reckless and destructive behavior,” Goodsell said Thursday, reading from a prepared statement. “If I could go back to that day and die, in Claire’s place, I would in a heartbeat.”

“The constant nightmares, never being able to sleep because of what I did that morning, it’s something I will carry with me for the rest of my life,” he added . “Sorry is an understatement. I sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart.

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