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.

More from Law&Crime: ‘I am going to watch you die’: Woman who fatally ran over the father of her 3 children on an interstate highway learns her fate

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.

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Verdicts & Settlements

Lawyer awarded $3.3M after crashing snowmobile into negligently parked Army helicopter

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 26, 2024, 2:28 pm CDT

A federal judge in Massachusetts has awarded $3.3 million in damages to a lawyer for injuries suffered when he crashed his snowmobile into a camouflaged U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter parked on a snowmobile trail at dusk.

U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni of the District of Massachusetts awarded damages to Massachusetts lawyer Jeffrey Smith in a Sept. 23 decision following a bench trial.

The Associated Press and Fox News have coverage.

Mastroianni found that the government was 60% responsible for the 2019 incident because it failed “to take any steps to protect against the obvious risk” that it created from parking the helicopter in the spot. Smith was 40% responsible for speeding and wearing tinted goggles at night, the judge said.

Mastroianni came up with the $3.3 million figure after reducing damages to account for Smith’s comparative negligence and to account for a settlement reached with the landowner. The judge also awarded $100,000 to Smith’s son and $150,000 to his minor daughter.

Smith “suffered life-changing injuries” from the crash in Worthington, Massachusetts, Mastroianni said. He had multiple broken bones, a puncture to his left lung, herniated discs and neurological damage. A neurosurgeon had testified that Smith’s nerves had been “pulled clean out of the spinal cord itself,” making breathing difficult and essentially robbing him of the use of his left arm.

Smith’s law practice suffered because of limited stamina and pain. His net earnings were $134,394 in 2018, before the incident. In 2022, after the incident, he had a net loss of $5,671 because of increased paralegal hours.

The helicopter crew had flown from New York to Worthington for night training before deployment to Afghanistan. The chief warrant officer chose the location to replicate what the crew would see in Afghanistan. He also chose the location so that he could meet and socialize with a friend who lived in the town.