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Barton receives prison sentence for vehicular homicide

Photo by Janelle Patterson Kaitlyn G. Barton, 20, of 101 Stonecrest Drive, Marietta, exits Washington County Common Pleas Judge Mark Kerenyi’s court Friday on a personal recognizance bond after filing a no contest plea for aggravated vehicular homicide.

MARIETTA — A Marietta woman pleaded no contest to a charge of aggravated vehicular homicide Friday in Washington County Common Pleas Court, receiving a three-year prison sentence for a drunk driving crash that killed her passenger.

Kaitlyn G. Barton, 20, of 101 Stonecrest Drive, Marietta, appeared before Judge Mark Kerenyi to change her plea from not guilty.

Her attorney George Cosenza said she was accepting that evidence of the state would have proved her actions resulted in the death of Chad Matthew Cokeley, 24, of Parkersburg.

She pleaded guilty to count two, a second-degree felony, and the prosecution agreed to drop the other counts against her.

She was originally indicted for aggravated vehicular homicide, a first-degree felony, aggravated vehicular homicide, a second-degree felony, driving under OVI suspension, a first-degree misdemeanor and operation while under the influence of alcohol, a first-degree misdemeanor.

Then in December 2017, Barton was found incompetent to stand trial, due to the injuries she suffered from the accident.

“But she was restored to competency and found able to participate in her own defense,” explained Rings.

During the hearing Kerenyi informed Barton that the maximum sentence he could have imposed on her was eight years.

“There’s a mandatory prison term in this case and a mandatory license suspension of three years,” he noted. “Though my understanding is there’s an agreed disposition in this case.”

Barton is to serve three years in prison, with a three year drivers license suspension and also remain under community control after released.

But Cokeley’s family and friends who were in the courtroom Friday said a suspension of her license for only three years isn’t enough. None were willing to speak on the record and many were tears or shaking their heads as the court accepted Barton’s plea.

Cosenza told the court that Barton has no memory of the accident, but could accept the state’s evidence would have convicted her if she had gone to trial next week.

Barton was at the wheel on April 23, 2017, intoxicated when she lost control of the vehicle, ran off of the road and hit a tree on Glendale Extension.

“Witnesses thought she was the victim originally, she was very bloody and suffered a brain injury, but it was Chad that was dead from internal wounds,” noted Washington County Prosecutor Kevin Rings.

Barton was determined through the investigation to be the one driving.

“But what we’ll never know is why she was driving, his toxicology screen came back completely clear,” said Rings. “And their relation, why they were together is unknown, too.”

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