Jackson County Teen Admits Drunk Driving Crash That Killed Wellston Officer Matthew Juniper

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JACKSON, OHIO – An 18 year old from Jackson County has admitted he was the intoxicated driver in a crash that killed an off-duty Wellston police officer and seriously injured another. He has not yet been sentenced.

Attorney General Andy Wilson said the defendant pleaded guilty Monday in Jackson County Juvenile Court to a second-degree felony count of aggravated vehicular homicide and a third-degree felony count of aggravated vehicular assault. Disposition is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Nov. 5. The Attorney General’s Office did not release his name. He has since moved to Athens County.

The crash happened at about 2 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2025, on South Pennsylvania Avenue near Sixth Street in Wellston. The defendant, then 17, was driving a 2014 Hyundai Accent. He rear-ended a registered golf cart traveling south. The impact sent the cart off the left side of the road and into a tree. The car stopped in the roadway.

Matthew Juniper, 25, was the passenger and died of his injuries. He was a four-year veteran of the Wellston Police Department and a former Jackson County sheriff’s deputy. Brant Derrow, 40, also a Wellston officer, was driving the cart and was seriously injured. Both men were off duty. The teen driver had minor injuries.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol investigated. Its crash reconstruction unit worked the scene with Wellston police and fire, the sheriff’s office, county EMS, and the coroner. The road stayed closed for nearly six hours. The Patrol did not name the driver because he was a minor.

Charges came seven months later. On March 31, 2026, then-Attorney General Dave Yost said the teen would be prosecuted in juvenile court on two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, aggravated vehicular assault, vehicular assault, and two OVI counts. The office’s Special Prosecutions Section is handling the case.

Monday’s plea resolves the case short of trial. It does not set the penalty. In juvenile court, that decision comes at disposition.

“A teenager’s reckless decision to drive drunk cost a police officer his life and left another officer injured,” Wilson said. “This tragedy is a reminder of the devastating consequences that can result from drunken driving.”

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