The 18-year-old responsible for a rollover crash that claimed the life of an Arlington 19-year-old in October has been sentenced to two and a half years behind bars.
Brooks Thurston Bare received his sentence for DUI involuntary manslaughter yesterday (Thursday) following emotional statements from the parents of victim Nicholas Rados.
Chief Judge Judith L. Wheat handed down the sentence after Bare, who pleaded guilty to his charge in January, acknowledged his responsibility for the fatal early-morning crash on Oct. 12.
“This was not the result of a single bad decision,” Wheat said. “It was the result of a series of unlawful decisions.”
Bare admitted to drinking alcohol at a party and smoking marijuana before the crash, which occurred around 2 a.m. in the Tara-Leeway Heights neighborhood.
His vehicle, which held four other passengers, struck three parked cars before overturning near the intersection of N. Harrison Street and 23rd Street N, according to court documents.
A blood sample obtained following the crash placed Bare’s blood alcohol concentration at .157 — nearly twice the legal limit. A variety of cannabinoid chemical compounds were also identified in his blood, according to court records.
Rados, a 2024 graduate of Washington-Liberty High School, suffered fatal injuries after he was ejected from the vehicle during the crash.
“I do not believe that there is a person in this courtroom who would want to receive the phone call [the families] received on the morning of Oct. 12,” Wheat said.
While delivering a victim impact statement on Thursday, Rados’ mother expressed the struggles of processing the loss of her only child.
“When the officers told us that Nick was deceased,” she said, “our world ended. … It just doesn’t feel like there is any joy in our lives anymore.”
Rados, then a freshman at the University of Miami, came home that week to Arlington to wait out the impact of Hurricane Milton on South Florida.
Bare, a student at the University of Mississippi, saw a chance to reconnect with high school friends, he told the court.
Though Bare was merely “a friend of some of Nick’s friends,” Nick Rados’ father said, the 19-year-old found himself as one of the passengers in Bare’s vehicle at the end of the night despite Bare’s psychological state.
“I was blinded by my happiness and comfort and I lost sight of my responsibility,” Bare told the court.
Bare’s sentence, which fell on the higher end of the sentencing guideline range, also includes a suspended sentence of five-and-a-half years that would be served if he violates the terms of his probation.
As part of Bare’s six-year probationary period, he will have his driver’s license revoked and be required to complete 250 hours of community service, among other stipulations.
