Guilty pleas entered in hazing death

Three more defendants in the case of a Bowling Green State University student dying after a fraternity hazing event in 2021 have pled guilty.
Wood County prosecutor Paul Dobson said Jarrett Prizel appeared before Judge Joel Kuhlman in common pleas court April 22 and pled guilty to reckless homicide and eight counts of misdemeanor hazing. On April 26, Benjamin Boyers, pled guilty to obstructing justice as well as reckless homicide and eight counts of misdemeanor hazing. On April 27, Canyon Caldwell, pled guilty to obstructing justice and eight counts of misdemeanor hazing.
The reckless homicide charges for Prizel and Boyers had been amended from involuntary manslaughter. Both are third degree felonies.
Dobson said he dismissed several other misdemeanor charges involving providing alcohol to underage persons.
Prizel, of up-state New York, and Boyers, Sylvania, O., and six others were indicted by the Wood County Grand Jury on misdemeanor and felony charges, including involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault, tampering with evidence, hazing and obstructing justice.
Prizel, Boyers and the other defendants were taking part in a fraternity event on March 4, 2021 in which new pledges were directed to drink large amounts of alcohol.
Dobson stated at the hearing that Prizel has taken charge of the new members at the event after being asked to do so by another fraternity member. The new members were presented with bottles they were expected to drink. Stone Foltz consumed a 1-liter bottle of bourbon during the event and was taken back to his apartment where was left alone and became unconscious.
A roommate later found him and emergency medical service personnel were called. Foltz was taken to Wood County Hospital and then transported to Toledo Hospital, where he died March 7 without regaining consciousness.
The Lucas County Coroner ruled his death as “fatal ethanol intoxication during hazing incident.”
Dobson said that Caldwell, of Dublin, O., played a “less significant” role in Foltz’s death than the others who were indicted.
Last year, two other defendants, Aaron Lehane and Niall Sweeney entered pleas: Lehane to several misdemeanor offenses and Sweeney to tampering with evidence, a third degree felony.
Dobson said Prizel’s plea is the first in the case that directly takes responsibility for Foltz’s death.
Three co-defendants remain in the case that is scheduled for trial on May 16.
“While we were pleased to get the first couple of men to take responsibility for what happened that night, it was important that people started taking responsibility for what happened to Stone,” Dobson said. “I am proud and humbled to have met the Foltzes. But the father part of me wishes I had never met them. And I know they wish they had never met me. So I want this to stop. I never want a prosecutor to meet a parent under these terrible circumstances again.”