Former ‘American Idol’ Singer Caleb Kennedy Pleads Guilty in DUI Case, Gets 8 Year Sentence

Former American Idol contestant Caleb Kennedy was sentenced to eight years in prison this week for a 2022 DUI car crash in South Carolina that killed 54-year-old Larry Duane Parris. According to WSPA, Kennedy, 20, plead guilty to driving under the influence resulting in death on Monday and was sentenced to 25 years in prison and fined $25,100 just before the case was slated to go to trial.

The judge in the case reduced that sentence to eight years in prison and a $15,100 fine — with three of those eight years to be served in home detention — with Kennedy also ordered to serve five years of probation and undergo random drug testing and mental health counseling. The country singer will receive credit for time served since the crash and his initial arrest.

Kennedy was arrested in Feb. 2022 after the deadly crash in Spartanburg County, S.C., where the highway patrol said drove his pickup truck onto a private driveway, where he struck Parris and pinned the victim to a building. Toxicology reports revealed that Kennedy had THC — the active ingredient in marijuana — as well as prescribed Prozac in his system at the time.

Prosecutors said at the time that Kennedy told deputies after the crash that he had taken a “deep draw” from a vaping device and was feeling the effects while driving.

Then-teenager singer Kennedy was voted into the top five on the 19th season of Idol in 2021, but left the show after a Snapchat video surfaced that appeared to show him sitting next to a person wearing what looked like a Ku Klux Klan hood. Kennedy apologized for the incident at the time, saying, “There was a video that surfaced on the internet and it displayed actions that were not meant to be taken in that way. I was younger and did not think about the actions, but that’s not an excuse.”