A Bend man  was sentenced to eight years in prison Tuesday after he pleaded guilty in Deschutes County Circuit Court to criminally negligent homicide for the death of Jacobic Lee Barnhill, who was killed during a rollover crash in 2023.

Bryce Tanner Lupton, 25, who police say was driving under the influence the night of the crash, killed Barnhill, 23, of La Pine when he drove off the road on 15th Street near Bear Creek Road in Bend. The crash also injured a Redmond woman, Shyann Oster. Both were passengers in Lupton’s Ford Focus.

Lupton was arrested in February 2024 on charges of first-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault and driving under the influence of intoxicants in connection to the crash. 

Earlier this month, his attorneys reached a settlement in which Lupton pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault for injuring Oster. In conjunction with his eight-year prison sentence, Lupton also pled guilty to driving under the influence and will have his driver’s license permanently revoked.

Barnhill and Lupton met while working at Parr Lumber, where they became friends. Lupton expressed his remorse and grief in a statement addressed to Barnhill’s family during Tuesday’s sentencing.

“I lack the words to explain my remorse … It was never my intention to hurt anyone that night … Jacobic and I made fast friends at Parr Lumber. He was one of the hardest workers I had ever met and one of the kindest people I’d ever met. I feel his loss as well.” Lupton said. “I write this letter with the utmost sincerity and sadness for the pain and loss of life I have caused in hopes that it may help Jacobic’s friends and family find closure.”

Neither Oster nor Barnhill’s family elected to make victim impact statements.

Sentencing for intoxicated drivers that cause fatal crashes varies greatly based on severity. In 2023, Flynn Lovejoy was sentenced to seven years in prison for a 2021 hit-and-run crash along Cascade Lakes Highway that killed cyclist Richard Wolf. Also in 2023, a Montana man who caused a crash on U.S. Highway 97 that killed four members of the same family was sentenced to 24 years in prison. 

Last year, Bend woman Audrey McHugh was sentenced in Jefferson County Circuit Court to 25 years in prison for a drunk-driving crash that killed two Warm Springs teens and their aunt.