American Idol alum Caleb Kennedy has been sentenced to eight years in jail for killing a man in a DUI smash.

The singer, 20, pleaded guilty Nov. 18 to a prison riding beneath the affect payment resulting in the death of Larry Duane Parris, 54, in South Carolina in 2022. Kennedy modified into once in the origin sentenced to 25 years in jail and ordered to pay a $25,100 dazzling and his sentence modified into once sooner or later lowered to eight years and a $15,100 dazzling, in accordance with court docket records got by E! News.

Kennedy is made up our minds to serve three years of his sentence on home detention and got credit score for the time he has served since his 2022 arrest. He’s to even be attach on probation for five years, relieve mental health and substance abuse counseling and endure random drug and alcohol making an strive out, the records repeat.

On Nov. 22, Kennedy's appropriate kind group acknowledged in an announcement to E! News that he “again wants to explicit his heartfelt sympathies to the Parris household,” adding, “Caleb fully accepts his accountability for this accident and hopes for healing for everybody suffering from this tragedy.”

Kennedy's lawyer Ryan Beasley acknowledged the sentence, also handed down Nov. 18, modified into once gorgeous.

“He's purchased no checklist,” the lawyer told Greenville News, “and he modified into once a minor when this came about.”

Beasley endured, “This wasn't such an egregious act that you just investigate cross-test loads of the time, the attach of us were ingesting and riding then they hit anyone at night time or going the infamous capacity down the avenue. This modified into once a abnormal reaction from his prescription treatment and presumably THC.”

Spartanburg County prosecutor Barry J. Barnette, acknowledged the case “reveals the dangers of vape pens to society,” in accordance with an announcement from the 7th Circuit Solicitor's Region of work shared with E! News.

In February 2022, Kennedy modified into once riding his 2011 Ford pickup in South Carolina when he drove into the driveway of Parris' home and killed him, and an investigation later confirmed that Kennedy modified into once beneath the affect of marijuana, in accordance with a South Carolina Toll road Patrol arrest relate posted by the Spartanburg Herald-Journal.

At the time, the outlet Barnette as asserting that Kennedy had taken “a deep hit” from a vape pen while meeting a chum, then drove his automobile down a number of roads into Parris' driveway, the attach the victim modified into once talking on a phone.

“I investigate cross-test my daddy laying in his hang store, moaning and groaning, with a stranger now now not even calling 911,” Parris' daughter, Kelsey Parris, told the settle at a court docket hearing that month, per The Articulate. “He killed my dad, point blank. I wish I might maybe pay fairly little bit of cash or change money to maintain my daddy attend.”

Kennedy competed on season 19 of American Idol in 2021. He made the quit five but left the repeat after a video surfaced online that allegedly confirmed him subsequent to anyone in a white hood reminiscent of those faded by the Ku Klux Klan. (E! News has now now not verified the authenticity of the video.)

“Hey y'all, right here is gonna be a little bit of of a surprise, but I’m now now not gonna be on American Idol,” Kennedy later shared in an announcement on Instagram. “There modified into once a video that surfaced on the win and it displayed actions that were now now not supposed to be taken in that capacity.”

He explained, “I modified into once youthful and did now now not judge referring to the actions, but that's now now not an excuse. I wanna relate regret to all my followers and everybody who I basically maintain let down.”