‘To be here without her is my nightmare’: victim-impact statements detail devastation of 2022 fatal drunk-driving crash By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 6:35 PM CST Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023

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In a Winnipeg courtroom, packed with nearly 80 grieving family members and friends, Karen Reimer faced the man who took her daughter’s life in a high-speed drunk-driving crash and the mother who tried to help cover up his involvement.

“Everything they both did was to put themselves first and save their own skins,” Reimer told court Tuesday, in a tear-filled victim-impact statement. “There is not a doubt in my mind they would have stuck to their lies if not for the irrefutable evidence.

“I now realize there is no correlation between being a kind and moral person and what will happen to you in life.”

Prosecutors are seeking a seven-year prison sentence for Tyler Goodman, who previously pleaded guilty to impaired driving causing death and failing to remain at the scene of the May 1, 2022, crash that killed Jordyn Reimer, 24.

His mother, Laurie Goodman, 57, has pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice, with the prosecution and defence jointly recommending she receive a six-month conditional sentence served in the community.

“Both offenders are exceptionally culpable, in different ways for what they have done,” Crown attorney Matt Armstrong told provincial court Judge Kael McKenzie.

Dozens of family members and supporters, nearly all of them wearing purple T-shirts bearing Jordyn’s picture, filled the courtroom to capacity.

Tyler Goodman, then a few days shy of his 29th birthday, had been drinking with friends at a Transcona bar and was behind the wheel of his mother’s pickup truck when it blew through a stop sign at 108 km/h in a 50-km/h zone.

The vehicle slammed into Jordyn Reimer’s Jeep at Kildare Avenue West and Bond Street shortly after 2 a.m.

She was rushed to Health Sciences Centre with catastrophic injuries and died a short time later. She had been at the wheel of her sister Alexandra’s vehicle, acting as the designated driver.

“To be here without her is my nightmare,” Alexandra told court Tuesday, her voice wracked with sobs. “The fact she was a designated driver that night for myself and my friends… I will forever feel I played a part in losing her. I will never forgive myself. I wish I could trade places. She was so innocent, so good, she deserved to live.”

Goodman, who later told police he had consumed nine or 10 beers before getting behind the wheel, rebuffed an acquaintance who took his keys and urged him not to drive, telling her “It’s OK, I’ll meet you at the afterparty.”

One of Goodman’s friends took the keys back, claiming he would drive the truck.

Security video at the bar showed Goodman chugging his last beer before leaving with friends to buy a 15-pack of Budweiser Light.

After the crash, Goodman and his passengers ignored the pleas of witnesses to remain at the scene and left on foot, taking the beer with them.

“The severity of the crash at that moment would have been evident to anyone,” Armstrong said.

A collision reconstructionist determined Goodman had the accelerator pressed to the floor three seconds before the collision and was driving 101 km/h at the moment of impact.

“This depth of risk-taking behaviour was not a momentary lapse,” Armstrong said. “It was sustained and escalating the further he drove. It was a series of decisions, one after the other.”

According to an agreed statement of facts previously provided to court, Goodman called his mother shortly after the crash and asked to be picked up at the Dairy Queen on Victoria Avenue East, several blocks south of the collision.

At mid-day May 1, Laurie Goodman took her son to the hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries. Then she took him to Winnipeg Police Service headquarters around 10:45 p.m., where he turned himself in.

Goodman admitted to police he had driven the vehicle and had been drinking, but he claimed he walked home and went to bed without seeing his mother.

Laurie Goodman told two police constables she did not know how he had arrived home on the night of the crash and she hadn’t seen him until the morning after.

“Only the two offenders know if they agreed to lie or arrived at the lie by coincidence,” Armstrong said.

Goodman was released on bail as police continued to investigate, the Crown said.

Footage from a neighbour’s doorbell camera showed Laurie Goodman leaving the house at 2:19 a.m., and returning with her son 11 minutes later. Police officers knocked on her door 15 minutes later, and called her on the phone, but no one answered.

In his initial statement to police, Goodman claimed he drank just three beers the night of the crash.

“It was only when he was confronted with conflicting evidence that the number started to rise,” Armstrong said.

“There were multiple chances for Mr. Goodman to do the right thing, even after he caused this catastrophe.”

A dozen family members and friends provided emotionally wrenching victim-impact statements to court detailing how their lives have been forever changed by Jordyn’s death and directed anger at Goodman for his conscious decision to drink and drive.

Doug Reimer said he is “forever broken” by his daughter’s death.

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“It has taken from me a smart, caring, fun-loving daughter who was just beginning what would have been a successful, rewarding, fulfilling life,” he said. “I can’t understand how any human being could do what they did and not render any assistance.

“These people will never know any forgiveness from me. They don’t deserve it.”

The court has been provided more than 120 victim-impact statements, with more than 30 of the writers wishing to read aloud in court.

The sentencing hearing will resume Friday, with more victim-impact statements and defence submissions.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

Every piece of reporting Dean produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.