A Fulton County man convicted of fatally running over a road construction worker while driving drunk has lost his appeal. The Arkansas Court of Appeals announced Thursday it was upholding a jury’s guilty verdict of negligent homicide against Kristopher Gould of Mammoth Spring.
Gould had been charged after driving into a construction zone near the Tyronza Bridge on Interstate 555 on May 30, 2020. Preston Brayfield was hit and killed during the incident. The prosecution said a blood draw from that night shows Gould’s blood alcohol content was 0.326%. That’s four times the legal limit of 0.08%. According to the report from Jonesboro television station KAIT, it took the jury less than 15 minutes to find Gould guilty on Dec. 9, 2021, and sentence him to 15 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
In his appeal, Gould argued the Poinsett County Circuit Court “committed reversible error when it denied his motion for directed verdict because the State did not prove each element of negligent homicide and when it did not allow a jury instruction on the lesser-included offense of misdemeanor negligent homicide.” In the opinion written by Judge Robert J. Gladwin, the Court of Appeals determined Gould’s actions involved “a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe.”
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