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 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 driving under the influence, and leaving the scene of criminal damage and criminal damage to property. Two cases of being under the influence of alcohol caused serious bodily injury.

Goodsell will serve his life sentence for murder at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center. The other crimes are punished with lesser penalties.

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

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

The other two in the Subaru, Claire's 51-year-old mother Elizabeth Zisserson and her 13-year-old friend Kendall Zemotel, suffered what the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office called “catastrophic injuries.”

“I'm so upset… 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 officers at the scene of the fatal crash 7 a.m.

At the scene of the accident, first responders found a white Subaru with significant damage to the front end and, across the street, a white Ford pickup truck that had overturned and had severe damage to the passenger side.

An investigation revealed that Goodsell had attended a company party and then an afterparty at his home before getting behind the wheel of his Hi-Way Safety Systems, Inc. He hit a company truck and promptly crashed into a tree, breaking his passenger headlight.

Colleagues 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 running a red light at 67 miles per hour, he had a blood alcohol content of .266, well above the limit of .08, and that he was using a lot of cocaine. After the accident, police found a bottle of whiskey, a beer can, two nip bottles, marijuana and a pipe in the truck.

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

“The constant nightmares of never being able to sleep because of what I did that morning, I will carry that 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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