A Marshfield man was convicted of second-degree murder for driving drunk and high when he struck another car in Pembroke, killing 13-year-old Claire Zisserson and seriously injuring two others.
“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,” Gregory Goodsell told police officers at the scene of the fatal crash the morning of Dec. 29, 2019.
A Plymouth Superior Court Jury on Tuesday took roughly 10 hours to convict Goodsell, 36, 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. His trial lasted about two weeks. He is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 3.
Pembroke Police were dispatched just before 7 that morning to the area where Route 139, which goes by Church Street through town, crosses Oak Street, according to the Plymouth District Attorney’s office. A Massachusetts State Police trooper who was driving home after his shift was already on the scene.
There, 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. Responders found Subaru driver Elizabeth Zisserson, 51, and two 13-year-old girls, daughter Claire Zisserson and friend Kendall Zemotel, seated in the backseat, suffering from what the DA’s office called “catastrophic injuries.” The three were transported to South Shore Hospital, with the girls then transported to Boston Children’s Hospital for further treatment.
Claire Zisserson did not survive her injuries.
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.
Courtesy photo
Claire Zisserson, the 13-year-old girl who Gregory Goodsell killed when he struck the car she was in while he was driving drunk and high on Dec. 29, 2019.(Courtesy photo)
Herald file photo
A large crowd filled Brewster Garden Park in Plymouth for a candlelight vigil for Claire Zisserson and Kendall Zemotel on Jan. 5, 2020. (Jim Michaud/Boston Herald)
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