A Logan judge on Monday handed down jail time to a Utah State University student in the alcohol-poisoning case of Michael Starks, who prosecutors allege was a hazing victim. Grant Barney, 22, was sent to jail just a few days after another USU student died under suspicious circumstances.
A 29-year-old student who completed his last final exam Thursday and was drinking beer at home was later found unresponsive by his roommates, according to Logan police. The roommates began CPR and summoned emergency help, but the student was pronounced dead at Logan Regional Hospital early Friday, the morning before USU's commencement.
Police Capt. Jeff Curtis said investigators do not yet know the man's blood alcohol level and are awaiting toxicology results to determine a cause of death.
Judge Thomas Willmore cited that death Monday while putting Barney on probation for a year for obstructing the police investigation into Starks' death last November. Barney, a member of a now-defunct Sigma Nu fraternity chapter, lived in the private Logan house where sorority women took the pledging Starks for an unsanctioned initiation party.
Starks, an 18-year-old freshman from Salt Lake City, consumed most of a 750ml bottle of vodka supplied by one of the women, who stripped him and painted him Aggie blue. Barney's crime was throwing away the bottle after Starks died the next morning, say prosecutors, who dismissed a hazing charge against him.
Barney's sentence includes a suspended six-month jail term, but he must serve eight days, pay a $1,000 fine, remain in school, have no association with Greek-letter organizations and perform 100 hours of community service. The service must include meeting with USU freshman to tell them about the hazards of binge drinking.
Whitney Miller, the 19-year-old woman accused of supplying the vodka that killed Starks, is scheduled to appear in court next Wednesday. Cache County prosecutors filed hazing charges against 12 Chi Omega and Sigma Nu members and the Greek chapters themselves. Charges have been dismissed against three students, while a fourth has entered a plea in abeyance, meaning the hazing conviction will be wiped clean when she completes probation.
Three of the remaining student defendants have filed motions to dismiss the hazing charge, as have the two Greek organizations. The defendants are arguing that what transpired the night before Starks' death does not constitute hazing and Utah's hazing statute defines hazing so broadly that it proscribes legitimate student interaction and activities.
