Ohio bar owner gets 7 years for dragging girl in Hummer hit-and-run

Seven years in prison is the punishment Jeffrey Atkinson received for a crash that left 9-year-old Ashley Escalante with her left leg gone and a recovery that is still far from over. The Montgomery County Common Pleas Court also imposed a 10-year driver’s license suspension, closing a case that began with a July 22, 2024 hit-and-run at Wayne Avenue and Clover Street in Dayton.

Atkinson, 57, pleaded guilty in May 2026, just days before his trial was set to begin, to aggravated vehicular assault, endangering children, failure to stop after an accident and operating a vehicle while impaired. Police said his blood alcohol level was 0.34. Local reporting identified the Hummer driver as the owner of Cowboys, the bar where officers later found him miles from the crash scene after witnesses helped track him down.

Ashley was riding a bicycle with a friend when Atkinson struck her at the crosswalk and dragged her through the street. WHIO reported she was pulled nearly half a mile. Dayton police later said her lower left leg and foot were missing below the knee. The Dayton Children’s Hospital Foundation said she was rushed to Dayton Children’s for emergency trauma care, where doctors worked to stop the bleeding and stabilize her. Since then, she has had multiple surgeries, a long recovery and a prosthetic leg.

The case carried extra force in court because Ashley addressed Atkinson directly and said she forgave him, not because he deserved it, but because she did not want hatred to control her life. That moment gave the sentencing hearing a raw edge that matched the scale of the harm. Ashley’s parents, Carlos Escalante and Mayra Martinez, had already described their family as broken while pushing for justice after the crash.

Atkinson admitted to hitting and dragging the girl after initially moving toward trial, and the plea deal arrived only days before jury selection was expected to start. For a case built on a child’s life split into before and after a crosswalk in Dayton, the seven-year sentence and 10-year ban were the court’s answer to a violent wreck that changed everything in seconds.