Inset: Hunter Jackson, left, and Odin Ratliff (Utah County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Kent Barlow (KSL/YouTube).
A Utah jury determined a 28-year-old man acted with “depraved indifference” when he drove 120 mph while high on methamphetamine and plowed through horse stables where he hit and killed two toddlers who were playing with toy trucks.
Kent Cody Barlow was convicted Friday of depraved indifference homicide in the deaths of 3-year-olds Odin Ratliff and Hunter Jackson. Barlow on May 2, 2022, was driving recklessly and ignoring his passengers’ repeated pleas for him to slow down as he was sped along Tiffany Lane in Eagle Mountain, which is about 30 miles northwest of Provo. He lost control and crashed into the Cedar Valley Stables, the Utah County Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
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Michael Starrs, deputy Utah County attorney, told jurors in his closing argument the boys were having a great time playing with each other, picking up chicken eggs and chasing cats, according to a courtroom report from local NBC affiliate KSL. But that fun turned into tragedy when Barlow floored the accelerator, traveling 120 mph in a 45 mph zone and headed toward the stables despite seeing all the activity there.
“The signs of life were there,” Starrs said. “The signs of life were ignored. The signs of life were obvious. They weren’t hidden, they weren’t concealed. We know that Kent Barlow would have seen all those cars.”
Prosecutors also pointed out he had previously been convicted of driving over 100 mph some three years before the fatal crash and ignored a judge’s warning that his speeding could prove deadly.
Barlow’s attorney Justin Morrison conceded that his client was high and behind the wheel, but argued he did not mean to lose control of the car and certainly had no intention of hitting the boys. Barlow is not “a cold-blooded killer,” Morrison said.
But for the families of Odin and Hunter, there was never a question of the defendant’s guilt.
“Hearing the words guilty of depraved indifference murder is what we’ve been fighting for,” Odin’s mother Theresa Ratliff told KSL after the verdict. “That’s what we got because that is what he is guilty of.”
Barlow is slated to be sentenced on June 30. He faces 15 years to life in prison.
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