
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 9, 1994                   TAG: 9407120087
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DEADLY DRIVER GETS 6-YEAR PRISON TERM

A Roanoke man who drove his pickup truck into a crowd of people, missing a man who had just punched him but killing an innocent bystander, was sentenced Friday to six years in prison.

In seeking a murder conviction, prosecutors had argued that an angry Harold Elmer Gould used his truck in a way that was no different than firing a gun into the group of people gathered outside a Southwest Roanoke home.

But Gould, who said he lost control of his truck and never intended to hurt anyone as he fled the scene, was convicted in May of voluntary manslaughter.

He was sentenced Friday by Roanoke Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein. "No sentence I could impose would equal the value of Rebecca Sheppard's life," Weckstein said.

Sheppard, 27, was killed after she was struck by Gould's pickup truck as it plowed through a crowded front yard Aug. 6 on Marshall Avenue.

Pregnant at the time, Sheppard died an innocent bystander. Testimony showed that her husband, Tim, punched Gould in the ear for no apparent reason, starting a chain of events that led to her death.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom had asked that Gould, 37, receive the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison - "a small pittance to pay for what he did."

But defense attorney Charles Phillips said the blame should not rest entirely on Gould. "The blood of Rebecca Sheppard is as much on the hands of her husband, who started all this," as it is on Gould, Phillips argued.

At his trial in May, Gould testified that Tim Sheppard struck him in the ear for no reason after he stopped by the Marshall Avenue home to pick up some equipment as part of his job as a motorcycle mechanic.

Gould said he was trying to escape, and to avoid people standing in the street at the same time, when his truck hit the sidewalk and went out of control. Despite having told police earlier that Sheppard jumped in front of his truck, Gould testified in May that he had no recollection of hitting her - only of veering into the yard for a second or two.

"I was terrified and scared for my life," he testified. "I was just trying to get out of there."

Weckstein revoked Gould's driver's license and ordered that he be on probation for 15 years following his release. Gould will be eligible for parole after serving about one year of his sentence, Branscom said.

by CNB