WLOX.com - The News for South MississippiDUI charge sends Goff back to prison

A Gautier man whose manslaughter sentence was reduced for good behavior is back behind bars after being arrested for DUI.  

Despite the outcry from community members, last year Joseph Goff was let out prison for killing his former classmate, 18-year-old Kyle Todd. The victim's family and friends hope that this time Goff remains in prison. 

There's not a day Cooper Kimbrell said he doesn't think about Kyle Todd.

"This is Kyle on our senior portrait," Kimbrell said. "It makes you really grow up when your best friend is taken from you."

Kimbrell admits when he heard Todd's killer, Joseph Goff, had been arrested recently on a drunk driving charge, he wasn't surprised.

"I don't want to say 'I told you so,' but it's justice actually come back to get him." 

According to the State Department of Corrections, Goff was arrested New Year's Day in Columbia, Mississippi. Goff was released from prison in March as part of an earned release program, basically for good behavior.    

"He had no business being let out of jail," Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd said. 

Goff was sentenced to 20 years for killing Kyle Todd. Sheriff Mike Byrd said Goff should have served all 20 in fairness to the Todd family and Kyle. 

"He was shot through the glass of his home, and that is just despicable and evil," Byrd said about Kyle Todd's death. 

District Attorney Tony Lawrence agrees, and told WLOX in a phone call that Goff's DUI arrest is great example why he's not a fan of early release for violent offenders. 

"I don't think a person should have their sentence slashed because they pick up tree limbs," Lawrence said. "When someone takes another's life, not only do they destroy that life, but they affect forever - the lives of the victim's family, friends and community."  

The district attorney said he's working with local lawmakers hoping to get tougher legislation to keep offenders like Goff behind bars.

"They owe a debt to society and they should pay that debt."  

Goff is now at the Central Mississippi Correctional facility in Pearl.

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