Bedford woman arrested in 2017 traffic death of brewery founder
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A 21-year-old Bedford woman who was the driver of a car that crashed in 2017 and killed her passenger, one of the founders of Panther Island Brewing, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of manslaughter.
Jail records identified the suspect as Payton A. Goodwin.
She is accused in the May 2017 traffic death of Robert Yarbrough, 32, of North Richland Hills.
“She was asked to come in for an interview but she never showed despite multiple attempts to reach her,” Officer Brad Perez said in an email Wednesday. “Therefore a warrant was issued for her.”
The accident occurred shortly after 8:30 p.m. on May 23, 2017, on North Loop 820 near Mark IV Parkway just west of Interstate 35W.
Goodwin was accused of speeding as Yarbrough told her to slow down, police said.
Goodwin then pulled the emergency brake, police said.
Yarbrough was alert and talked to police at the scene just after the accident. He died the next day from blunt force trauma to his chest and abdomen, and a liver disease, according to a ruling by the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office. His death was ruled an accident.
His sister, Tiffany Yarbrough, told the Star-Telegram in a 2017 interview her brother had just been approved for a liver transplant.
Tiffany Yarbrough said Wednesday Goodwin never reached out to the family.
“There is not one single day that goes by that I do not think about my brother and wish I could talk to him or hug him one more time,” she said in a Wednesday telephone interview. “We will never have Robert back and we may not truly ever have “closure” but this(arrest) is definitely a step in the right direction of justice being served.”
Yarbrough was one of the founding members of Panther Island Brewing Company in Fort Worth, brewery officials said.
Goodwin was in the Tarrant County Jail Wednesday with bail set at $250,000.
This story was originally published June 27, 2018 at 10:27 AM with the headline "Bedford woman arrested in 2017 traffic death of brewery founder."