First BGSU student pleads guilty in hazing death of Stone Foltz
The first of eight people charged in the hazing death of Bowling Green State University sophomore Stone Foltz pleaded guilty Thursday morning in a Wood County courtroom.
Niall Sweeney, 21, of Erie, Pennsylvania, was charged with third-degree felony involuntary manslaughter, eight counts of hazing, seven counts of failure to comply with underage alcohol laws, and obstructing official business.
Sweeney’s plea agreement allows him to be found guilty of felony tampering with evidence rather than the manslaughter charge, as well as misdemeanor hazing. All other counts have been dropped.
Sweeney will be sentenced in February, and he will no longer be required to wear an ankle monitor. Because of his cooperation with investigators, prosecutors recommended community control rather than jail time.
In his guilty plea, Sweeney said he participated in removing evidence that would’ve helped investigators, including deleting Snapchat posts from the night of the incident.
Rex Elliott and Sean Alto, attorneys for the Stone Foltz family, said in a statement that Sweeney’s guilty plea “sends a strong message that any act of hazing will not be tolerated in this great State.”
“While his plea can’t bring Stone Foltz back, his family prays that days like this and those to come will go a long way toward ending the decades-long culture of hazing on all college campuses,” they said.
Seven other men also face charges in Foltz’s death. They include:
h Jacob Krinn, 20, of Delaware, charged with first-degree felony involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, felonious assault, hazing, failure to comply with underage alcohol laws, and obstructing official business;
h Troy Henricksen, 23, of Grove City, charged with third-degree felony involuntary manslaughter, tampering with evidence, obstructing justice, eight counts of hazing, and seven counts of failure to comply with underage alcohol laws;
h Canyon Caldwell, 21, of Dublin, charged with third-degree felony involuntary manslaughter, tampering with evidence, obstructing justice, eight counts of hazing, seven counts of failure to comply with underage alcohol laws, and obstructing official business;
h Daylen Dunson, 20, of Cleveland, charged with third-degree felony involuntary manslaughter, tampering with evidence, obstructing justice, eight counts of hazing, seven counts of failure to comply with underage alcohol laws, and obstructing official business;
h Jarrett Prizel, 19, of Olean, New York, charged with third-degree felony involuntary manslaughter, eight counts of hazing, and seven counts of failure to comply with underage alcohol laws;
h Aaron Lehane, 21, of Loveland, charged with tampering with evidence, eight counts of hazing, seven counts of failure to comply with underage alcohol laws, and obstructing official business; and
h Benjamin Boyers, 22, of Sylvania, was charged with felony involuntary manslaughter, felony tampering with evidence, eight counts of misdemeanor hazing, and seven counts of misdemeanor failure to comply with underage drinking laws.
Foltz, 20, a 2019 graduate of Buckeye Valley High School in Delaware County’s Troy Township, was hospitalized March 5 after he consumed what his family’s attorney said was “a copious amount of alcohol.”
Earlier on March 4, BGSU’S chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, where Foltz was rushing, held its traditional “Big Brother Night.” The event, common in fraternities around that time of year, involves pledges being newly initiated into the fraternity and introduced to the active fraternity member who will serve as their mentor or “big brother.”
It was at that event that Foltz and other pledges were forced to drink the equivalent of about 40 shots of hard liquor as part of an initiation into the fraternity. He died on March 7 at a Toledo hospital of fatal alcohol intoxication. shendrix@dispatch.com @sheridan120