Ohio frat member, mother testify on ritual that led to student's drinking death

Posted: May 18, 2022 / 06:35 PM EDT

Updated: May 18, 2022 / 06:38 PM EDT

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (WCMH) – More details came out Wednesday in trial about the night that led to a new Bowling Green State University fraternity member’s death.

Stone Foltz died from intoxication March 4, 2021, after an alleged Pi Kappa Alpha hazing ritual that day. The event led to the fraternity’s expulsion and eight men facing criminal charges. All of them pleaded not guilty originally, but five later changed their pleas to guilty on some of the charges.

Two former members who did not change their plea, Jacob Krinn and Troy Henricksen, saw another day of trial and testimony in a Wood County courtroom Wednesday. A former fraternity member and Foltz’s mother, Shari, both took the stand. Shari read out text messages she received from her son the night he died.

“I questioned, ‘Why do you have to drink a lot?’ He said, ‘It’s a ritual, I guess,'” Shari said. “I said, my comment was, ‘That’s stupid. Doesn’t sound like a good frat,’ and he said, ‘That’s how every frat is,’ and then I said, ‘Well be smart about it.’ He said ‘I will.’”

Former member Niall Sweeney, already convicted for his involvement in the death, gave a walkthrough of the event where he said Foltz and other new members learned who their “big brother,” or mentor in the group would be.

“Once the little or the new member receives this bottle, what is the expectation that the little will do with it at this event?” Wood County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Dobson said.

“There’s an expectation to try and finish the bottle,” Sweeney said. “They could put it in a sink… They could take it for later, correct.”

“Nobody forced anybody to do a thing including you,” the prosecutor asserted.

“That is correct,” Sweeney said.

Sweeney testified that he did not see Krinn give anything to Foltz on the night he died.

Krinn, 21, of Delaware, faces charges including: