Jury gets hazing case: Free will or compelled to drink?

The jury will have to decide if Stone Foltz consumed a bottle of alcohol of his own free will or if he did it under pressure.

The case against two former Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity members ended Thursday afternoon and the jury got the case at 7:30 p.m.

Jacob Krinn and Troy Henricksen are charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide and hazing in the death of Foltz, a Bowling Green State University sophomore from Delaware, Ohio. They did not take the stand.

Foltz died March 7, 2021, after attending a March 4 event at an off-campus house run by Pi Alpha Kappa. His cause of death has been ruled as accidental ethanol intoxication with fraternity induction contributing.

Wood County Common Pleas Judge Joel Kuhlman told the jury it has been proven there was a party March 4, 2021 at 318 N. Main St., at which Krinn provided Foltz with a 1-liter bottle of Evan Williams alcohol.

Kuhlman told them to consider each charge and defendant separately.

During closing arguments, Wood County Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Gross said Foltz wanted to be a Pike, the informal name of Pi Kappa Alpha.

“If you expect to be a Pike, you’re expected to do Pike things. And Stone Foltz is dead because he did Pike things,” Gross said.

Foltz drank quickly, by his own choice, and that caused his death, said defense attorney Samuel Shamansky.

Pike tradition and ritual includes the family bottle, Gross said. The active members had what all the pledges wanted, which was membership and acceptance, she said.

All events led up to the Big/Little event where pledges met their mentor, but the details of the event were kept secret, Gross said, and that secrecy takes away an informed choice to attend.

She walked through the charges.

“Jacob Krinn did cause the death of Stone Foltz,” Gross said, in explaining the charge of involuntary manslaughter.

He caused Foltz’s death by buying and handing Foltz a 1-liter bottle of bourbon.

Photos and videos show Krinn, who was Foltz’s Big, compelling him to drink the bottle and bragging when the bottle was empty.

Krinn’s conduct caused Foltz’s death, and the death was foreseeable because of the expectation there would be drinking and the Big was expected to stay with his Little, Gross said.

Krinn wanted to party at the bars, so he left Foltz alone in his apartment, she said.

The second involuntary manslaughter charge against Krinn alleges he caused Foltz’s death through the offense of hazing or failure to comply with underage alcohol laws.

Gross said Krinn recklessly participated in the hazing of Foltz by compelling him to drink.

Parent Shari Foltz had her head on husband Cory’s shoulder throughout Gross’ hour-long talk.

Complicity can be explained by a bank robbery, Gross said: When one person goes in and one is the get-away driver, if someone is harmed, the driver is just as guilty.

All charges against Henricksen are based on the allegations he aided and abetted someone else.

Henricksen planned the event at the off-campus house to protect the fraternity from university repercussions, Gross said.

“He’s the direct link between the fraternity and the new members who want to get in,” she said. “He purposely kept the new members in the dark about that Big/Little event.”

The involuntary manslaughter charge alleges Henricksen attempted to commit hazing or failed to comply with underage alcohol laws.

“He told the Bigs to get (alcohol),” she said, and he knew every Little would be handed a family bottle.

Foltz’s death was foreseeable because he knew the dangers of alcohol and had even attended anti-hazing campaigns on campus.

Henricksen solicited help for running the Big/Little, which makes him complicit for reckless homicide, Gross said, and he had expectations there would be drinking at the event.

He tampered with evidence by deleting or telling someone else to delete a text stream he had with new members, she said.

The eight counts of hazing Henricksen is facing are for each new member who attended the party March 4. He planned the location and told the Bigs to buy their bottle, Gross said.

He told police he expected Bigs to stay sober and keep an eye on their Littles, Gross said, and he told the Littles to call off classes the next day.

As a senior, “he’s an authority figure and everyone looks up to him,” she said.

Pledges were hearing their class was “soft” and they knew they had to do something to impress the Pike members, Gross said.

Five pledges testified how nervous they were about drinking a lot of alcohol, she said, adding that pledges reported throwing out part of their bottle with the help of their Bigs.

Stone Foltz didn’t get that help, she said.

Shamansky, who is representing Krinn, said a picture has been painted by the state of what they think happened.

There is no evidence to show Krinn forced Foltz to finish the bottle, Shamansky said, and there is no evidence of encouragement.

Foltz had decided before he knew who his Big was, he was going to beat the bottle before it beat him, Shamansky said.

“Before this event even started … he already decided in his head he was going to go and drink that bottle of booze,” Shamansky said.

Foltz brought this on himself, he said.

“Where’s the proof that Jacob Krinn did anything to further Stone Foltz’s plan?” Shamansky said.

The state has to prove force or compulsion to prove hazing, he said.

“There’s zero evidence of force or compulsion,” Shamansky said, adding that every pledge testified they weren’t forced.

“These kids want to be cool, and they think if they drink the whole bottle, that will make them macho,” he said.

It’s not even clear that Foltz finished the bottle, Shamansky said.

“That’s my boy,” said by Krinn in a video, is the only evidence the state has there was coercion, but it doesn’t prove Foltz finished the bottle, he said.

The four felonies all require causation. Krinn gave him a bottle but didn’t tell him to drink it.

“From what they do from there is their own free will,” Shamansky said.

There was no egging him on the finish the bottle, he said, and Krinn didn’t have a legal duty to dissuade Foltz from drinking.

The drop-off of Foltz at his apartment is the biggest red herring and it doesn’t matter how long Krinn stayed, Shamansky said. They left him because they didn’t think Foltz was in peril. Signs of distress didn’t appear until an hour later, he said.

The coroner said the death was an accident, Shamansky said.

There is one act in this case and that was providing Foltz with a bottle of alcohol, he said.

Henricksen’s attorney, Eric Long, also said Foltz’s death was an accident.

“Just because a tragedy has occurred doesn’t mean someone has to be blamed,” he said.

The decision to prosecute was shaped with the understanding that Foltz had to drink the entire bottle, which isn’t true, Long said.

“I hope we’re all team Foltz. But in this courtroom, I hope we’re all team justice,” Long said.

Henricksen wasn’t even there, Long said.

Henricksen was set to graduate in six weeks and join the Army Rangers. Instead, he is here, Long said.

The state knows Henricksen didn’t do anything. The case isn’t about what Henricksen did but how he got lumped in with others, Long said.

“They are throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks,” he said.

“It’s not their fault,” he said the defendants’ claimed.

New members weren’t told what the expectations of Big/Little were, and that created an environment of hazing.

Henricksen had the information they needed but decided not to give it to them, Dobson said.

“So, the Littles were left to their own devices,” he said.

If there was anyone who didn’t want to drink a bottle of alcohol, it was Foltz. He told him mom, he told his girlfriends, he told other pledges, Dobson said.

“Stone Foltz was worried, and Stone Foltz didn’t want to do this.”

When Bigs handed bottle to the Littles, who were all under the age of 21, they broke the law. When the bottle was handed to Foltz, both Krinn and Henricksen broke the law.

“Stone dying is a result of Jacob Krinn handed him the bottle … and it certainly was a foreseeable result.”

Krinn knew the danger, so he left Stone on his stomach so he wouldn’t choke if he threw up.

Dobson showed the video of Foltz drinking in the basement of Bando, which became a spectator sport.

“Finish that bottle off,” Foltz was told in the video.

Dobson said the night didn’t end with Foltz finishing the bottle. It ended with this, he said, and presented the photo of Foltz on his couch.

“It was the alcohol in that bottle that killed Stone,” he said.