BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) – A Raleigh County man recieves three to fifteen years in prison for the death of Kenneth Isaiah Brown.
Thirty-six-year-old Nicholas Farthing of Cool Ridge pleaded guilty in January of 2022 to DUI causing death. On Friday, May 20, 2022, Raleigh County Circuit Court Judge Darl Poling issued the maximum sentence after he heard from Prosecuting Attorney Ben Hatfield.
Hatfield said Farthing was convicted on prior DUIs, including an aggravated DUI in Kanawha County, before he killed Brown. He added Farthing’s blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit when he killed the 23-year-old man.
Hatfield added Farthing got drunk with his boss Jamie Bloomfield at the Crash Zone Bar on April 13, 2020, and then drove on Interstate 64 at speeds over 150 miles per hour. He crashed his Dodge Challenger into Brown’s car and killed him.
Brown’s sisters and his father, Kenneth Harshaw of Hinton, said Brown’s death devastated their family.
“I’m also unbelievably angry that my brother’s killer is given chance after chance to be a speeding bullet down highway after highway. I believe he called killing my brother. A dumb decision, I disagree. A dumb decision is a decision you make out of spontaneity or desperation. The act of choosing to drive drunk over and over and over is not a dumb decision, especially after you continue to do so after murdering someone with that very action,” said Jolesa Blankenship, Brown’s sister.
Hatfield said the Crash Zone served alcohol when the governor ordered bars to close for the pandemic. Brown was a coach in Hinton and a sports writer for “Voice of Morgantown.”