JACKSON — An 18-year-old has pleaded guilty to felony charges in the drunk-driving crash that killed an off-duty Wellston police officer last summer, the Ohio Attorney General’s office announced.
The teenager entered the plea Monday in Jackson County Juvenile Court to one count of aggravated vehicular homicide, a second-degree felony, and one count of aggravated vehicular assault, a third-degree felony.
The crash happened around 2 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2025, when a 2014 Hyundai Accent driven by the teen — then 17 — rear-ended a golf car traveling south on South Pennsylvania Avenue near Sixth Street in Jackson, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
The golf cart left the roadway and struck a tree. Matthew Juniper, 25, of Wellston, a passenger in the cart, died at the scene. Juniper was a four-year veteran of the Wellston Police Department who had previously served as a Jackson County sheriff’s deputy. The golf cart’s driver, another Wellston officer, was seriously injured.
Prosecutors said the teen was intoxicated at the time of the crash. Sentencing details were not immediately released. Attorney General Andy Wilson’s office, which prosecuted the case, said the outcome reflects the deadly consequences of impaired driving and the loss felt across the Jackson County law enforcement community.