PROVO, Utah — A passenger in the car driven by Kent Cody Barlow testified Friday that he was "afraid of dying" due to Barlow's driving before the vehicle crashed into an Eagle Mountain corral in 2022, killing two toddlers, Odin Ratliff and Hunter Jackson.
During his testimony on the second day of Barlow's trial, Michael Higbee shared how he and two others were in Saratoga when they noticed Barlow driving behind them. He testified that Barlow had invited them to his parents' house to eat, leading them to drive towards Eagle Mountain.
During the drive, Higbee said Barlow was looking to race and sped off, "threading the needle" between other vehicles before the group could no longer see him.
After meeting up and all getting into Barlow's car, Higbee testified that Barlow claimed to have done something to his car to make it quicker. As Barlow was driving at a high rate of speed, Higbee said he told him to "chill out," and that the entire group told him to slow down.
"I screamed at him to stop," Higbee said. When asked by the prosecution if Barlow stopped, Higbee answered, "No."
Barlow attorney claims death of toddlers was 'unintentional accident':
Higbee added that Barlow did not respond and that it was "like I was talking to a brick wall" as he believed they were traveling at nearly 110 miles per hour.
"I was afraid of dying," testified Higbee.
The car hit a bump, according to Higbee, sending the vehicle out of control, forcing him to black out. After the accident, Hibgee said he remembered seeing families coming out of the stables and he thought they may have hit the horses.
Higbee said he wasn't aware Jackson and Ratliff had died until he was in the hospital.
Hunter's mother, Brooke Jackson, was the first to take the stand Friday, one day after Theresa Ratiliff did the same, to share what led up to the moment her 3-year-old son was killed when Barlow's car careened into the corral at a high rate of speed. Hunter and Odin, also three, both died when the corral collapsed on them while they were playing at the Cedar Valley Stables.
Barlow has been charged with two counts of first-degree felony murder from the May 2022 incident. During opening statements Thursday, his attorney, Justin Morrison, did not dispute that Barlow was driving too fast while he was under the influence before crashing, but said it was an "unintentional accident" and not murder.
Jackson shared how Hunter had volunteered to help tend the stable's cats before seeing Odin, leading to the boys gathering some toys and going out to the round pen where they often played together.
After checking on the boys in the pen, Jackson testified that she heard a "rolling thunder" sound that kept getting louder and louder.
"The ground shook," she said, followed by "panic and chaos." Jackson added that afterwards, everything went silent.
Jackson shared how she went to the pen and saw only the tractors the boys had been playing with, but not Hunter or Odin. She went inside to see if the boys had gone to the tack room when she heard Theresa Ratliff, Odin's mother, scream.
Once she returned outside, Jackson saw Theresa had blood on her shirt, and another person told her not to go over to the area where the incident had occurred. On Thursday, Ratliff had testified that she found her son with "no life in him" and sat holding him.
Jackson stood still and called her husband. She added that she still wasn't sure anyone had died until a sheriff's deputy asked for a "different blanket" to protect the boys.
Utah County Sheriff's Office Deputy Tanner Edwards took the stand following Jackson and said the road around the stables was not one where anyone would want to drive fast. He shared how when he arrived at the corral, he instantly saw what had occurred and blocked the road and gathered his trauma bag.
"When I first got on scene, evidence wasn’t my first thought process,” Edwards said.
The deputy said he put a blanket over the boys so no one else could see their bodies.
