A Cleveland County judge sentenced Sutton Petz to life in prison with the possibility of parole for killing 18-year-old Maddix Bias in a 2024 crash on Alameda Drive.

District Judge Michael Tupper handed down the sentence Sept. 8 for second-degree murder. Petz also received a concurrent 20-year sentence for driving under the influence causing great bodily injury, the Norman Transcript reported.

Petz entered a blind no-contest plea June 4 to both charges. A blind plea leaves sentencing entirely to the judge, with no agreed-upon deal between prosecution and defense.

Prosecutors said Petz was impaired by nitrous oxide when she lost consciousness behind the wheel in February 2024, according to News 9. Bias, a passenger in Petz's 2016 Jeep Wrangler, died. A second passenger suffered a dislocated collarbone, fractured sternum and dislocated shoulder.

At a preliminary hearing in August 2025, witness Cooper Emerson, another passenger in the vehicle, testified that Petz had consumed alcohol earlier that day. Emerson said Petz purchased two cans of nitrous oxide from a smoke shop, and everyone in the vehicle took turns inhaling the gas before Petz passed out and crashed, News 9 reported.

The vehicle veered off the road, went through a grass ditch, became airborne and collided with several trees before flipping onto its side, according to a probable cause affidavit cited by MEAWW.

Petz, who is pregnant, apologized during the hearing. Before handing down the sentence, Judge Tupper said there were no true winners in the case.

Outside the courtroom, Bias's mother Candi Morris, his sister and other family members hugged and cried after more than two years of waiting.

Morris, who has worked in dentistry for over 20 years, has channeled her grief into advocacy. Oklahoma passed the Maddix Bias Act in 2025, criminalizing the use of nitrous oxide and adding harsher penalties for selling it to minors. Morris said her son's memory will live on through that legislation.

A federal bill, the Nitrous Oxide Safety Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Oklahoma, passed unanimously out of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee in early September. Morris helped secure Bice as the bill's original co-sponsor, according to 1011 Now.

Petz has 10 days to file an appeal.