Former American Idol contestant Caleb Kennedy has been sentenced to prison in connection to a 2022 fatal DUI crash in South Carolina. Nearly three years after the Season 19 hopeful, now 20, struck and killed 54-year-old Larry Duane Parris, Kennedy on Monday pleaded guilty to a felony driving under the influence charge resulting in death, according to the 7th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, per The Greenville News.
Kennedy was sentenced to 25 years in prison and fined $25,100; however, his sentence was reduced to eight years in prison, and his fine to $15,100. Three years of his sentence will be served via home detention, and he will receive credit for the nearly three years he has already served. In addition to his prison sentence, Kennedy must also serve five years of probation and attend mental health and substance abuse counseling.
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“A very good person (Larry Parris) died, and I feel so bad for the Parris family,” Kennedy’s attorney, Greenville-based Ryan Beasley, said after the sentencing. “Caleb’s very remorseful and his heartfelt sympathies are extended to the Parris family. This sentencing starts the healing process for everybody involved in this situation.”
A then 17-year-old Kennedy was arrested in February 2022 after he crashed his 2011 Ford pick-up truck into a garage outside a home in Pacolet, South Carolina, where Parris was working. Paris was pronounced dead at a hospital three hours later.
Kennedy was reportedly driving under the influence of marijuana at the time of the accident, according to warrants, and “drove 175 yards down a driveway, ran over Paris and was stopped by a large machine in Paris’ garage.” Kennedy’s lawyer claimed that the singer’s prescription for Prozac had increased shortly before the crash, causing him to have a “bad reaction.” Kennedy was ultimately arrested and charged with a felony DUI, and Parris’ family later requested that his bond be denied in an emotional plea.
“He’s got no record, and he was a minor when this happened,” Beasley said Monday. “This wasn’t such an egregious act that you see most of the time, where people were drinking and driving then they hit somebody at night or going the wrong way down the road. This was a weird reaction from his prescription medicine and possibly THC.”
Kennedy competed on season 19 of American Idol in 2021. He made it to the Top 5 before he withdrew from the competition when a controversial video of him surfaced showing him with a person who wore a hood that resembled those worn by the Ku Klux Klan. His mother later clarified that the other person was dressed as a character from the movie The Strangers: Prey at Night. Kennedy later apologized for the video, which he said “displayed actions that were not meant to be taken in that way.” He added, “I know this has hurt and disappointed a lot of people and made people lose respect for me. I’m so sorry! I pray that I can one day regain your trust in who I am and have your respect!”
