![](https://www.sent-trib.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/128699504_web1_Foltz.jpg)
File. A picture of Stone Foltz is projected on a large screen during a memorial service.
J.D. Pooley | Sentinel-Tribune
A fourth man charged in the death of a Bowling Green State University student has pleaded guilty.
Ben Boyer appeared Tuesday in the courtroom of Wood County Common Pleas Judge Joel Kuhlman.
He pleaded guilty to reckless homicide, obstructing justice and eight counts hazing in the case involving the hazing death of Bowling Green State University student Stone Foltz.
The reckless homicide charge had been amended from involuntary manslaughter. Both are third-degree felonies. The obstructing justice, which is a fifth-degree felony, is amended from the original charge of tampering with evidence, which was a third-degree felony.
Boyer, 22, Sylvania, will be sentenced June 16 along with Jarrett Prizel.
Prizel, 20, of upstate New York, appeared Friday and pleaded guilty to reckless homicide and eight counts of misdemeanor hazing.
Wood County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Dobson dismissed a number of other misdemeanors involving the provision of alcohol to underage individuals.
Prizel and Boyer are among eight men who have been indicted by a Wood County grand jury on various misdemeanor and felony charges, including involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault, tampering with evidence, hazing, and obstructing justice.
They had been part of a March 4, 2021, fraternity event that included having new members, or pledges, drink copious amounts of alcohol.
Prizel had taken charge of the new members the night of the event when he had been asked by another member to do so, Dobson said in a press release last week. He led the new members into the event, where they were presented with the bottles they were expected to drink.
Dobson said that Stone Foltz consumed a 1-liter bottle of bourbon during the event, after which he was taken back to his apartment and left alone there, where he fell into unconsciousness. He was later found by a roommate, and emergency medical personnel were called.
Foltz was taken to Wood County Hospital and then transported to The Toledo Hospital, where he died on March 7, never regaining consciousness. The Lucas County Coroner ruled his death as “fatal ethanol intoxication during hazing incident.”
Last fall, Aaron Lehane and Niall Sweeney entered pleas.
Lehane, 22, Bowling Green, pleaded to multiple misdemeanor offenses while Sweeney, 22, Erie, Pennsylvania, pleaded to tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony. Both also will be sentenced June 16.
Prizel and Boyer are the first pleas of the case which directly takes responsibility for Foltz’s death, Dobson said.
Four co-defendants remain in the case, which is scheduled to go to trial starting May 16.
Bowling Green State University expelled Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, which hosted the hazing event, a month after Foltz’s death.
“This is permanent loss of recognition – the fraternity will never again be recognized at BGSU in the future,” said Alex Solis, deputy chief of staff and university spokesperson.
Earlier this year, BGSU revoked the recognition of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity for violations of the Code of Student Conduct. The fraternity will not be eligible to seek re-recognition as a BGSU student organization until fall 2025, at the earliest, ensuring that current members can never again participate in the chapter.
Sigma Gamma Rho sorority has been permanently expelled due to severe hazing activity.
Delta Chi fraternity and Phi Delta Theta fraternity also have had their charters suspended for hazing violations.