Alabama woman headed to prison after DUI deaths of 3-year-old son, 79-year-old man

Published 6:10 am Thursday, April 8, 2021

An Alabama woman has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to killing a 3-year-old boy and a 79-year-old man in a DUI head-on collision in 2017.

Heather Heaton, 43, of Warrior pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of reckless murder. Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey told Al.com that Heaton was sentenced to 30 years on each count.

Alabama State Troopers said that Grady Leon Goodwin, 79, was driving a 2001 Chevrolet pickup truck that collided head-on with a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Heaton. The collision happened in May 2017 in the Dallas community in Blount County,

Goodwin was pronounced dead on the scene. Heaton’s son Brayden, who was in Heaton’s vehicle at the time of the wreck, died a short time later at Children’s of Alabama

Evidence showed that Heaton had Alprazolam, fentanyl, methadone, and morphine in her system at the time of the wreck.