Jack Birch’s boss didn’t have to fly in from Texas for his funeral.
She could have sent a kind note. Flowers, even, said Danna Birch, Jack’s wife.
But she came to Delaware for the February 2023 memorial service “because that’s the kind of man he was,” Danna said. She added that nearly 2,000 friends, family, softball and baseball players, parishioners and community members attended Birch’s funeral.
On Friday afternoon, more than a year and a half after laying her husband to rest, Danna stood at the podium in courtroom 8B of the New Castle County courthouse, preparing for the sentencing of the man who killed 47-year-old Birch.
With strength in her voice, she recounted that “Coach Jack” was beloved by those he encountered. That he was a “good man.” That his impact on the community was felt far and wide – so much so that funeral attendees were “wrapped around” St. John the Beloved Roman Catholic Church in Milltown as they prepared to bid him farewell last year.
Yet he was also a man whose life was cut short when his friend of a decade, Walter “Reds” Ferris, offered to drive him and two others around his property while drunk on the night of Jan. 29, 2023.
Ferris, owner of local contracting business Ferris Home Improvements, had been drinking “all day,” prosecutor Barzilai Axelrod said Friday. He also had marijuana in his system.
At some point during the ride around Ferris’ sprawling, wooded property, he lost control of the utility task vehicle he was driving. The UTV flipped, killing Birch and injuring Ferris and a 40-year-old man.
Ferris pleaded guilty in early July to two misdemeanors: operation of a motor vehicle causing death and driving under the influence. As part of the plea, Axelrod and defense attorney Eugene Maurer agreed to recommend eight months in prison.
BACKGROUND:Why this local business owner pleaded guilty to role in fatal North Star crash in 2023
New Castle County Superior Court Judge Meghan Adams followed that recommendation on Friday. In addition to Ferris’ prison time – which he began serving a day after his July plea – she sentenced him to 18 months probation.
He will also be required to use an alcohol monitoring device during probation to ensure he does not drink and undergo alcohol use counseling.
“How can I apologize?” he said when addressing the court in his white prison jumpsuit. “Saying I’m sorry … gets nowhere near enough.”
The crash and charges
Ferris was initially charged in June 2023 for the crash, which occurred the night of the Philadelphia Eagles’ NFC championship game.
The Birds were headed to the Super Bowl and Ferris, who had helped organize a party bus that would allow a group of friends to tailgate at Lincoln Financial Field earlier in the day, invited friends to continue the party at his home in North Star.
About 10 p.m., he got behind the wheel of the UTV. He drove it across his “wet” and “muddy” property before ultimately trying to navigate down an embankment, Axelrod said. That’s when the crash occurred.
Ferris initially faced four charges for the wreck: two felonies and two misdemeanors.
The felonies included criminally negligent homicide and vehicular homicide, while the misdemeanors were related to driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
After months of negotiations – including final discussions in the hours before the July plea – Ferris pleaded guilty to the two misdemeanors.
His blood alcohol content when hospitalized after the crash was 0.165, more than double the legal limit. It’s his second lifetime DUI, the first occurring nearly 30 years ago, in May 1996.
Ferris avoided becoming a felon with the plea, but any future DUIs will be charged as felonies per Delaware law, Axelrod said.
The aftermath and a Facebook message
On Friday, Axelrod noted that the court received 75 letters in support of Ferris before sentencing.
While he said the letters “do portray” Ferris as a selfless, self-made businessman who would help his community, perhaps more telling is what was done in private.
The prosecutor pointed to an April 2023 Facebook message sent to a close friend of Danna Birch’s in which Ferris shirks responsibility for his decision that night.
In the message, he wrote that he “wasn’t drunk or on drugs,” adding that “the toxicology will prove this,” Axelrod read.
“I wasn’t allowed to go to the funeral because I was instantly deemed the villain,” Ferris wrote in the message, which was later deleted – though not before being screenshotted. “When this toxicology comes out … then what?”
Ferris also wrote that he “took care” of Birch by taking his keys on the night of the crash.
Axelrod suggested on Friday that the message was insolent – and that perhaps Ferris was “emboldened” by the fact that he hadn’t yet been charged.
“The audacity of the content of that message is staggering,” Axelrod said. “The audacity of trying to reach out to a widow and her friends with facts that aren’t facts – they’re lies.”
Accepting what happened
Maurer, Ferris’ defense attorney, said Friday that his client may have truly believed he was not impaired the night of the crash, given he didn’t yet have the results of the toxicology report.
“I’m not sure he realized the weightiness of what occurred,” Maurer said.
He added that Ferris is “not anywhere close to the same person” that he was in January 2023, something even Axelrod acknowledged. The prosecutor said Friday that he’s seen a “transformation” in Ferris over the last several months.
Ferris appeared remorseful as he spoke to the court, noting that no apology could undo what happened.
He also acknowledged that while he will return to his children in several months, “Jack’s kids are without their dad.”
“Sorry is only a start and I don’t know that there will ever be a finish,” he said. “What I know is I brought a world of hurt and am powerless to fix it.”
Got a tip? Send to Isabel Hughes at [email protected] or 302-324-2785. For all things breaking news, follow her on X at @izzihughes_
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