Ohio State standout and ex-NFL player gets five years in prison for killing a man in 2025 drunk-driving crash
A former Ohio State football star who had a brief NFL career has been sentenced to at least five years in prison for the 2025 car crash that killed a 24-year-old man in Dublin, Ohio.
Kirk Barton, a Buckeyes offensive lineman from 2003 until 2007, initially pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and two counts of Operating a Vehicle Impaired (OVI) after the June 21 crash that killed Ethan Perry.
But on Wednesday, the 41-year-old Barton pleaded guilty to a single count of aggravated vehicular homicide with the other charges being dropped. As a result, he has been sentenced to between five and seven and a half years in prison. The judge in the case also ordered Barton’s license to be suspended permanently.
‘I am pleading guilty because I am guilty,’ he said at Wednesday’s hearing, as reported by 10TV.com in Columbus.
Perry’s mother Roslyn 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.’
Former Ohio State football player Kirk Barton listens to visiting Judge David Cain speak
Ethan Perry, 24, was pronounced dead at the scene after the car crash on June 21, 2025
Barton survived with non-life-threatening injuries and was later found to have a blood-alcohol content of 0.242 percent, well above the state limit of 0.08 percent
Barton was driving his pickup truck in the wrong direction on US Route 33 in the early hours of June 21 when he attempted to turn around on the highway. His vehicle was going 126mph in a 25mph zone before the crash and 114mph at the time of impact with Perry’s Lexus, according to prosecutors.
Perry was pronounced dead at the scene.
Barton survived with non-life-threatening injuries and was later found to have a blood-alcohol content of 0.242 percent, well above the state limit of 0.08 percent.
Furthermore, police at the scene said he showed signs of impairment, including bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. Later Barton admitted to drinking alcohol before the crash, according to prosecutors.
An avid YouTuber, Perry was on his way home to edit footage he’d previously recorded before the crash.
Ethan Perry’s mother, Roslyn Perry, center, listens to Assistant Franklin County Prosecutors Jeff Zezech talk about the fatal car crash with fKirk Barton and her son
‘He was going home on a Friday night to work on his dream, already had went and put in his 50-hour work week,’ friend Benjamin Woods told NBC4i.com in June. ‘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.’
‘The world could use more people like [Perry], always the world could use more people like him,’ Woods added. ‘And it’s just too sad. He was, he’s a gift. I’m saying it was a gift in my life for a lot of years. This is rough.’
Barton was a seventh-round pick of the Chicago Bears in the 2008 NFL Draft, but appeared in only one NFL game.
He was on the 2006 Buckeyes who went undefeated in the regular season before falling in the BCS Championship to Chris Leak, Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators.
