BOWLING GREEN — “Finish that bottle.”
“I’m trying, I’m trying,” Hunter Hendrix says in response to the unidentified active member of Bowling Green State University’s former Pi Kappa Alpha, or Pike, chapter, who egged him on.
Their words are captured on a video from the night of March 4, 2021, the night when Stone Foltz, a 20-year-old BGSU student, ingested a copious amount of alcohol at a Pike initiation event and later died, as a consequence.
Eight former Pike members were charged in connection with Mr. Foltz’s death. This week two — Troy Henricksen, 24, of Grove City, Ohio, and co-defendant Jacob Krinn, 21, of Delaware, Ohio — have taken their case to trial in Wood County Common Pleas Court. Both face multiple felony charges, including involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, and hazing, among others.
The heart of this case, for both the state and the defense, is whether Mr. Foltz and, by extension, the other pledges in his class were required, pressured, or coerced into finishing bottles of liquor as a part of a “Big-Little” tradition, an event where active members of the fraternity or “Bigs” were paired with new members or “Littles” in a mentorship role.
Each of the five pledges who have thus far testified on behalf of the state of Ohio has clearly and succinctly testified that they had a choice of whether to drink that night, but also noted that the “atmosphere” pressured them to do so.
“You could say no at any time?” Mr. Krinn’s defense attorney, Samuel Shamansky, later asked Mitchell Meyer, 21.
“Correct, ultimately it was my choice,” Mr. Meyer answered.
“Nobody told you to drink an entire bottle of liquor, correct?”
“No,” Mr. Meyer answered.
Jacob Kin, 21, not to be confused with the defendant Mr. Krinn, initially told police that the pledges were not “pressured” to drink, but rather “encouraged.”
“I’m not going to put my own life at risk for a [expletive] fraternity,” the former Pike pledge said.
Later on in that same interview, Mr. Kin said of himself and a handful of the other pledges’ attitudes about the night: “We were like, we’re not putting our lives at risk, like it’s not that serious.”
On Thursday, he testified that he did feel an “atmospheric pressure” to drink.
The word “atmosphere” became an issue on cross-examination, specifically with Mr. Henricksen’s defense attorney Eric Long, who pointed out to each of the three boys who used it that they had not started incorporating it into their accounts of the events of March 4, 2021, until after they started meeting with prosecutors.
Mr. Hendrix, 21, testified Thursday that he was pressured to drink and that active Pike members had told him, “it was just something you gotta get through.”
The former pledge said he threw up multiple times that night and was still encouraged to keep drinking.
“I would take a pull and go throw up ... They’d say, ‘oh, you’re so close to finishing,” Mr. Hendrix said, staring straight ahead. “I just did it.”
Leading up to the event, each of the pledges said they all felt and shared with each other a certain degree of apprehension.
“We were really not looking forward to the night,” Nicholas Pavone, 20, said.
Mr. Hendrix noted that because of a circulating rumor that the spring, 2021 pledge class was “soft,” he felt an added pressure to please active members.
“The whole time you’d, like, know you’d need to make a name for yourself to get into the fraternity,” the former pledge testified.
Rumors were circulating that the March 4, 2021 “Big-Little” party would entail a lot of drinking.
Mr. Pavone testified that active members played mind games with the pledges ahead of the event, telling them to shave their genitals and asking strange questions like, “Are you afraid of pigs?”
Mr. Pavone said he didn’t know why they’d ask something like that.
“I asked them and they said, ‘oh, you’ll find out,” the former pledge testified.
On the night of the “Big-Little” party, the pledges arrived en masse to a residence at 318 Main St. that Pikes called “Bando.” The three-story home was occupied by several active fraternity members at the time.
The pledges were then asked to blindfold themselves with their ties and place their hands on the pledge in front of them. They were taken down the stairs into the home’s basement, passing through a tunnel of active members who made loud noises, played heavy metal music, and jostled the boys.
Once in the basement, the pledges’ “Bigs” positioned themselves in front of their “Littles” and asked them to remove their blindfolds. The “Bigs” then presented their “Littles” with a bottle of liquor, also known as “the family bottle.”
Most of the pledges received 750 milliliters or fifths of alcohol from their “Bigs.” Mr. Hendrix, however, was handed a 1.75-liter bottle of Old Crow. According to the state, Mr. Foltz received a one-liter bottle of Evan Williams.
Nearly all of the pledges who testified mentioned that they struggled to remember exactly what happened that night because they were so heavily intoxicated, but all four of Thursday’s witnesses said that active members helped them finish their bottles, either by drinking some of the alcohol themselves or by pouring some of their bottles out when no one was watching.
“Was it important that nobody saw you,” assistant Wood County prosecutor Pamela Gross asked Mr. Pavone.
“Yeah, I felt that it was,” Mr. Pavone said. He also testified the pledges “were under the impression to finish the bottle.” Several pledges testified that finishing the bottle was “competitive” or felt like “a race.”
Mr. Hendrix said that after pouring out as much of his bottle as he could manage, a group of active fraternity members surrounded him and encouraged him to finish what little he had left.
The pledge broke down in tears on the stand as he recalled why he’d gone to the event, even though he was scared to attend.
“I just wanted to be part of it because my friends were part of it,” the pledge said.
At the conclusion of his testimony, the young man sobbed and embraced the Foltz family outside of the courtroom. Shari and Cory Foltz have attended each day of the trial so far, seated in the front row.
Testimony is scheduled to resume Friday morning.
First Published May 19, 2022, 10:34 p.m.
