Speer will not return to jail for boat death

Scott Speer, who pleaded guilty in July to charges related to the 2002 drowning death of his friend, will not return to jail.Speer, 46, of Akron, will instead serve two years probation, 300 hours of community service and attend drug or alcohol classes at least three times per week, as per a sentence imposed Thursday by Ottawa County Common Pleas Judge Bruce Winters.Speer was charged with murder and other charges after the 2002 drowning death of his friend Jim Barnett. According to prosecutors who presented a case against Speer in 2007, Speer had been driving his 24-foot power boat at night in choppy conditions from Put-in-Bay to East Harbor when Barnett fell from the boat near Mouse Island. Speer and a friend found Barnett's body washed up on Mouse Island the next day. Prosecutors argued at the time that Speer may have pushed Barnett into the water, or at least he acted recklessly in boating in severe conditions.A jury found Speer guilty in October 2007 of aggravated vehicular homicide and involuntary manslaughter. The high-profile case was broadcast on Court TV.Speer served 14 months in prison before his case was sent back to Ottawa County for retrial by the Ohio Supreme Court. The appellate court ruled Speer had an unfair trial because a deaf juror on the Ottawa County jury could not hear a 911 tape used as evidence by prosecutors. The juror read a transcript of the tape, but defense attorneys for Speer said she could not have perceived emotional inflections in the recording.Once the case returned to Ottawa County for retrial, Speer decided to plea guilty in July to charges of felony obstructing official business and misdemeanor negligent homicide.