Multi-Millionaire Who Adopted His Girlfriend Convicted Of DUI Manslaughter
Mar. 23 2012, Published 3:00 p.m. ET
By Debbie Emery - RadarOnline.com Reporter
A jury in a Palm Beach, Florida courtroom has found the multi-millionaire who adopted his girlfriend guilty of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide after plowing into a 23-year-old student’s car in February 2010.
After two weeks of testimony and five-and-a-half hours of deliberations, the ruling was read on Friday and now John Goodman faces up to 30 years in prison when sentenced on April 30.
As RadarOnline.com has previously reported, Goodman was more than twice the legal limit when he smashed into Scott Wilson’s car in February 2010, pushing the vehicle into a Palm Beach, Florida canal, where the 23-year-old later drowned.
The 48-year-old subsequently adopted his longtime girlfriend, Heather Laruso Hutchins, 42, as his daughter, which is seen by many as a move to protect his $300 million fortune in preparation for a wrongful death civil lawsuit brought against him by Wilson’s parents, William and Lili.
The judge denied defense attorney Roy Black's request for Goodman to be released on bail and Goodman was taken into custody, reported ABCNews.com.
The hot topic throughout the trial has been exactly how much booze was knocked back by the business mogul, who denied drinking potent Mind Erasers and Irish Car Bomb cocktails at a polo party before the crash.
"At the White Horse Tavern, there are five eyewitnesses. The eyewitnesses unanimously say John Goodman had one drink. Unanimously," Black said, claiming that hurting from the crash, his client staggered to a nearby barn where he found some alcohol which he then drank to ease the pain, in a bizarre explanation as to why investigator reports suggest that Goodman could have had 16 to 18 drinks in his system.
Instead of calling 911 immediately after the accident, Goodman went to his friend Kris Kampsen’s nearby barn that housed a “man cave,” where he claims he found a bottle of liquor, "And I proceeded to drink it down,” to alleviate excruciating pain from his injuries, while Wilson remained strapped inside his Hyundai upside down, drowning in the canal.
“The civil case will not be tried next week as was previously scheduled,” a spokesperson for attorney Scott Smith, who represents the Wilson family, told RadarOnline.com.