An 18-year-old has pleaded guilty in connection with a 2025 crash that killed an off-duty Wellston police officer and seriously injured another officer, according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
The defendant, who was 17 at the time of the crash and has since moved from Jackson County to Athens County, pleaded guilty Monday in Jackson County Juvenile Court to aggravated vehicular homicide, a second-degree felony, and aggravated vehicular assault, a third-degree felony.
According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the crash happened around 2 a.m. Aug. 30, 2025, on South Pennsylvania Avenue near Sixth Street in Wellston.
Authorities said the teenager, who was intoxicated, was driving a 2014 Hyundai Accent southbound when the vehicle rear-ended a golf cart.
The impact forced the golf cart off the left side of the road and into a tree.
Matthew Juniper, 25, of Wellston, was a passenger in the golf cart and suffered fatal injuries. Juniper was a four-year veteran of the Wellston Police Department and had previously served as a Jackson County sheriff’s deputy.
The golf cart’s driver, 40-year-old Brant Derrow of Wellston, also a Wellston police officer, was seriously injured.
“A teenager’s reckless decision to drive drunk cost a police officer his life and left another officer injured,” Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said in a statement. “This tragedy is a reminder of the devastating consequences that can result from drunken driving.”
A disposition hearing is scheduled for 3 p.m. Nov. 5.
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office Special Prosecutions Section is prosecuting the case.
