Drunken driver sentenced to 24 years in fatal KC wreck

A Jackson County judge sentenced a Kansas City man to 24 years in prison Tuesday for a drunken-driving rampage that killed an Independence man and injured three others.

Harvey L. Shoate, 46, had been out of prison for only 36 hours on July 3, 2010, when his vehicle collided with another car in the 4200 block of Emmauel Cleaver II Boulevard, killing Gregory Godding, 49, and severely injuring Goddings' wife and two children.

Shoate's blood-alcohol level was almost three times the legal limit, a prosecutor said.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Charles Atwell sentenced Shoate to 12 years on one count of involuntary manslaughter and 12 years each on three counts of second-degree assault. Atwell directed that the assault sentences run concurrently with each other but together run consecutively to the manslaughter term.

The Kansas City Star

www.kcstar.com

Tuesday, June 7, 2011 2:04 p.m.