Surfside Beach man sentenced to prison after deadly boat crash on Intracoastal Waterway
A Surfside Beach man pleaded guilty to a reckless homicide charge in connection to a boating crash that killed a passenger in April, according to the solicitor’s office.
On Wednesday, John Kody Austin Ray, 28, pleaded guilty to reckless homicide by operation of boat, according to a press release from the office of Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson.
The crash occurred April 11, 2021, on the Intracoastal Waterway.
Ray, who had a blood-alcohol concentration of almost twice the legal limit, was driving the boat south when he hit a fixed dock near Watergate Drive, according to the solicitor’s office.
Corey Parag, who was seated in the bow of the boat, was fatally injured.
Parag, 28, died from blunt force trauma he sustained in the crash, according to a boating accident report from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
Circuit Court Judge Steven H. John sentenced Ray to seven years in prison - three years suspended - as well as five years probation upon release.
Ray will serve three years in prison before being released on probation.
If he violates the terms of parole after his release, he will return to prison to serve the rest of his seven-year sentence.
Police officers who arrived at the scene of the crash smelled a “strong odor” of alcohol on Ray, who was “unsteady on his feet,” according to arrest warrants from April.
Police officers found alcoholic beverages in the boat, and Ray admitted to drinking alcohol and shots of liquor, according to the warrants.
