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No Verdict Yet In DUI-Manslaughter Trial In Hillsborough

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By TOM BRENNAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 22, 2009

Updated: 01/22/2009 09:59 pm

Pete Dreydoppel

TAMPA - More than three hours of deliberations failed to produce a verdict Thursday in the trial of a Riverview man accused of running over his neighbor's 3-year-old son.

Jurors will resume deliberations today in the trial of Pete Dreydoppel.

Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Emmett L. Battles sent jurors home at about 9 p.m. after more than three hours of considering evidence in the case.

Eddie Gould was killed Feb. 7, 2007, in the Alafia Riverwood mobile home park, 6521 Riverview Drive.

Prosecutors argued Dreydoppel was impaired on a combination of marijuana and Xanax that prevented him from avoiding the boy.

Defense attorneys told jurors it was a "tragic accident."

Earl Williams, who lived next to Dreydoppel and the Goulds, testified Thursday that the last time he saw Eddie alive, the boy was hunched over a toy truck pushing it toward the road through their trailer park.

It was about the same time Williams saw Pete Dreydoppel drive past in his pickup.

"Then I seen little Eddie under the front of truck," Williams testified today. "I jumped up. I ran out there, but I couldn't do nothing."

Dreydoppel, 53, is being tried on a DUI-manslaughter charge in the boy's death.

An emotional Williams could barely get through his brief testimony, breaking down when forced to recall the incident.

"Dear God, leave me alone," he told Dreydoppel's public defender, Jennifer Spadley. "I can't bring that young 'un back. I can't bring that baby back."

According to testimony, Dreydoppel had a mix of marijuana and Xanax in his blood samples taken after the accident.

Bruce Goldberg, a toxicologist at the University of Florida, testified the combination left Dreydoppel impaired.

Under cross-examination by Spadley, Goldberg said the level of either drug by itself wasn't sufficient to conclude Dreydoppel was debilitated.

But Goldberg said he also considered other factors, such as Dreydoppel having his shoes on the wrong feet, his continuing to drive to his trailer after hitting the boy and his confusion when deputies questioned him. He said those reinforced his opinion that Dreydoppel was impaired and shouldn't have been driving.

Goldberg said the Xanax levels were consistent with those Dreydoppel would have in taking the medication for a variety of ailments. He also said Dreydoppel could have used marijuana minutes or hours before the accident.

Williams said Dreydoppel immediately stopped his truck after hitting Eddie and got out and looked around. But he said his neighbor then drove on to his trailer. Williams said Eddie's body was under the truck.

Dreydoppel told investigators he thought he had hit a toy left in the road. He did not testify during his two-day trial.

Williams said Dreydoppel was driving slowly and carefully.

"It wasn't reckless," he said.

Williams said Gayle Gould, Eddie's mother, was visiting him at the time.

"Gayle hollered at him to get out of the street," he said, recalling the moments before the boy was hit.

The tearful mother ran from the courtroom when Williams described the accident.

Reporter Tom Brennan can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tbrennan@tampatrib.com.

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