Jury acquits 2 charged in hazing death of most serious counts
BOWLING GREEN — A Wood County jury on Friday acquitted two former Bowling Green State University students of the most serious charges stemming from their roles in a fraternity pledge’s hazing-related death last year, but convicted them of counts related to hazing and underage alcohol consumption.
In a verdict handed up Friday afternoon, the jury found both Jacob Krinn, 21, of Delaware, Ohio, and Troy Henricksen, 24, of Grove City, Ohio, not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and reckless homicide in connection with the March 7, 2021 death of Stone Foltz, 20, also of Delaware.
Krinn, who was Foltz’s “big” at the BGSU chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, was also acquitted of felonious assault but found guilty of obstructing official business, hazing, and failure to comply with underage alcohol laws.
Krinn’s attorney, Sam Shamansky, said the trial was “like Hell on Earth.”
“Wrongly accused, in the spotlight, labeled a killer, on pins and needles that just won’t quit, waiting for his time in the courtroom,” Shamansky
said. “Month after month, week after week.”
Henricksen, the fraternity’s new pledge educator at the time, was also acquitted of tampering with evidence but was found guilty of eight counts of hazing and seven counts of failure to comply with underage alcohol laws.
“It’s not an appropriate action to take somebody who represents a fraternity and turn him into a killer, ruin his reputation, attempt to ruin his career, and move forward in that regard,” Eric Long, Henricksen’s attorney, said after the verdict was read.
Henricksen was not personally present during the March 4, 2021 initiation event at an off-campus apartment during which Foltz and other pledges were coerced to consume entire bottles of liquor. Foltz complied and was then left unconscious in his own apartment, where he was later discovered having difficulty breathing. He later died at a Toledo hospital.
The jury rendered its verdicts after eight hours of deliberations that followed an 11-day trial. Wood County Common Pleas Judge Joel Kuhlman scheduled sentencings for Krinn on July 8 and for Henricksen on July 29.
Krinn and Henricksen were just two of eight co-defendants in the case, but
the other six all reached plea agreements before the trial began. All six had their charges lessened by pleading guilty, and many testified during the trial.
BGSU expelled three students and suspended 17 others for their roles in the fraternity event. The Pi Kappa Alpha chapter was also permanently banned from campus.
“It’s been a long, excruciating two weeks to have to live through what happened to Stone 15 months ago,” said Rex Elliott, the Foltz family’s lawyer. “It has not been easy.”
Elliott said the family was satisfied with the verdict, but the trial’s outcome would’ve been much different if Collin’s Law had been enacted sooner, making hazing a felony instead of a misdemeanor.
“This would’ve been a very different result had the Ohio legislature enacted Collin’s Law when it should have,” Elliott said. “Frankly, if it had, Stone Foltz might be alive today.”
Five of the six co-defendants who accepted guilty pleas have sentencings scheduled for June 16. Canyon Caldwell of Dublin, Ohio, charged with obstructing justice and eight counts of hazing, will be sentenced June 24.
Wood County Prosecutor Paul Dobson said before the trial began that he didn’t anticipate any of the defendants being sentenced to prison time — just probation.
The first to take a plea bargain was Aaron Lehane of Loveland, Ohio, charged with hazing, tampering with evidence, and obstructing official business. Niall Sweeney of Erie, Pa., followed suit, pleading guilty to tampering with evidence.
Jarrett Prizel of Olean, N.Y., was the first to plead guilty to any charges related to Foltz’s death. He was charged with reckless homicide and hazing.
Ben Boyers, 21, of Sylvania, then pleaded guilty to reckless homicide, obstructing justice, and hazing, followed by Caldwell and then Daylen Dunson, 22, of the Cleveland area.
Dunson, the Pi Kappa Alpha chapter’s president when Foltz died, was the last to make a plea deal. He pleaded guilty to reckless homicide, tampering with evidence, obstructing justice, obstructing official business, eight counts of hazing, and seven counts of failure to comply with underage alcohol laws.
“If something like this happens in the future, these kids will not be getting off with misdemeanors,” Elliott said. “They will be charged with felonies, and they will get convicted and go to jail.”
Elliott said state officials also were taking a close look at BGSU’s role in Foltz’s death.
“I think these kids definitely need to have consequences for this behavior, but the reality is, where are the adults that have set up this entire system?” he asked. “Where are the national fraternities to police these young men that they bestow these memberships to, and where are the universities when it means the most to try to understand what is going on in the fraternities that exist in their very campuses?”
Elliott expressed his belief that if hazing couldn’t be fixed, it was time for the Greek system to go.
“I hope it sends the message to kids on college campuses, not just here in Wood County, but throughout the state of Ohio and across the country that hazing is a thing of the past,” he said. “And if this continues, there’s just no place for Greek organizations in the United States of America.”