Last year’s ‘American Idol’ contestant Caleb Kennedy faces up to 25 years in prison if prosecuted as an adult after he crashed his truck onto private property.
Caleb Kennedy, the disgraced former American Idol competitor who was disqualified from the show’s 19th season when an old racist social media post resurfaced online, is back in the spotlight for another unexpected reason less than a year later.
Kennedy has been charged with felony driving under the influence resulting in death after slamming his truck into a workshop in Spartanburg County, according to several local news reports. Kennedy’s arrest was first announced on Twitter on Tuesday evening by Fox Carolina reporter Cody Alcorn.
According to Fox Carolina and WSPA TV, the crash occurred at 12:41 pm on Tuesday, when Kennedy ran his 2011 Ford pickup onto a private driveway on West Murph Road and collided with a building. Larry Duane Parris, a 54-year-old man inside the building, was struck by Kennedy’s vehicle and was taken to Spartanburg Medical Center, where he subsequently died from his injuries, according to the Spartanburg County Coroner’s Office. Kennedy was also hurt and was sent to the hospital, according to the reports.
#BREAKING: Former American Idol contestant 17-year-old Caleb Kennedy has been charged with Felony DUI resulting in Death in Spartanburg. Troopers say he ran off the road, into a building and hit a 54-year-old man working in the shop. https://t.co/ZsrbNVqVkx pic.twitter.com/aY8tQhUGAN
— Cody Alcorn (@CodyAlcorn) February 9, 2022
Kennedy reached the top five on American Idol last year and was considered a frontrunner, but he abruptly left the program with only two weeks left in the season after a video surfaced of him sitting close to someone wearing what appeared to be a Klu Klux Klan hood. When YouTube comedian and talk show host DefNoodles tweeted the disturbing video clip to his 127,000 followers, it went viral. It was reportedly a Snapchat post from when Kennedy was 12 years old.
Kennedy apologized for disappointing his followers, adding “I pray that I can one day regain your trust in who I am and have your respect!” while his mother said that the three-second video was taken out of context. He gave an interview to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal two months later, stating he “wasn’t ready” for the pressure of reality TV stardom, but now that he was back home, he was continuing to work on music.
Kennedy is being held at the Spartanburg County Detention Center as of now, awaiting a bond hearing scheduled on Wednesday morning. The 17-year-old faces up to 25 years in prison if he is prosecuted as an adult.
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