Caleb Kennedy is not giving up on life, after recently being sentenced to prison for a DUI crash that resulted in a man’s death, according to his lawyer.
The 20-year-old country music singer and former participant on “American Idol,” who received an eight-year prison sentence this year for the 2022 incident, is writing new music. And attorney Ryan Beasley told TMZ that Kennedy is hoping to return to the industry when get gets out.
Beasley told the site that Kennedy is planning to “lean on God heavily,” during his prison stay.
Kennedy was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison and a $25,100 fine for the crash which left Larry Duane Parris, 54, dead. Per Taste of Country, the sentence was suspended to eight years and the fine was lowered to $15,100. Three of the eight-year sentence is to be served in home detention, the site reported, and Kennedy is receiving credit for two years and nine months served.
Taste of Country reported that means Kennedy will have to spend just the next two years and three months in prison. He will also have to participate in counseling and will be on probation for five years.
Kennedy was arrested in Spartanburg, South Carolina on felony driving under the influence charges back in February of 2022 after he reportedly crashed into a workshop behind a home. Parris, who was in the shop, died from the injuries he sustained in the crash.
Taste of Country reported that the Spartanburg Country Sheriff’s Office released a toxicology report that showed Kennedy had THC and Prozac, which he had a prescription for, in his system at the time.
He reportedly pled guilty to the charges involved with the incident.
Kennedy has a controversial run on “American Idol.” He made it into the Top 5 on the show in 2021, but left after a video of him as a pre-teen, sitting next to someone in a hood that resembled that of a Ku Klux Klan member began circulating, Taste of Country reported.
His mother defended him claiming that he “doesn’t have a racist bone in his body,” the site reported.
