Kirk Barton has been sentenced to at least five years behind bars. The former Ohio State Buckeyes offensive lineman, who also played a single NFL game for the Chicago Bears, was behind the driver's seat during a crash that killed 24-year-old Ethan Perry in 2025.
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On Wednesday, March 25, Barton pleaded guilty to a single count of aggravated vehicular homicide. His sentence will run for between five and seven and a half years in prison. Furthermore, Barton's driving license has been suspended permanently.
"I am pleading guilty because I am guilty," Barton said, via 10tv.com.
During the hearing, Ethan Perry's mother also addressed the court.
"Because of your selfishness, I will never be a mother of a groom or a grandparent," she said. "Because of your selfishness, he doesn't call me in the morning anymore."
The car crash occurred when Barton was driving his pickup truck in the wrong direction on Route 33. He was attempting to turn around on the highway. According to The Daily Mail, Barton's truck was travelling at a mind-blowing 126 miles per hour, on a road with a 25-mile-per-hour limit. At the point of impact, Barton was reportedly traveling at 114 miles per hour.
Kirk Barton Was Over the Legal Drinking Limit at the Time of the Crash
Despite the speed of the collision, Barton walked away from the incident with non-life-threatening injuries. However, he was found to have a blood alcohol level of 0.242 percent, which is significantly higher than the 0.08 percent state limit.
"Police at the scene said he showed signs of impairment, including bloodshot eyes and slurred speech," The Daily Mail reported. "Later Barton admitted to drinking alcohol before the crash, according to prosecutors."
Unfortunately, Perry wasn't as fortunate. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Perry, a keen YouTuber, was travelling home to edit footage he'd shot for his channel
"He was going home on a Friday night to work on his dream, already had went and put in his 50-hour work week,' Benjamin Woods, Perry's friend, told NBC4i. 'It's a Friday night, and he just said, 'I'm going home. I want to give me some takeout, and I'm going home to edit all this content that we, that he, worked on."
Our condolences go out to Perry's family, friends and loved ones.
