The Los Angeles Times reports that four fraternity members have surrendered to police in San Luis Obispo stemming from the death of Carson Starkey, a fraternity pledge who died as a result of a fraternity hazing incident.

Haithem Ibrahim, 20, of Lafayette, Calif., and Zacary Ellis, 22, of San Luis Obispo were charged with felony hazing causing death. Russell Taylor, 22, of Fresno, and Adam Marszal, 21, of Carmichael, Calif., were charged with misdemeanor hazing. All four Cal Poly San Luis Obispo students face a misdemeanor charge of permitting a minor to consume alcohol.

Starkey, 18, was a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo freshman and pledge (someone trying to get into the fraternity) of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (”SAE”) fraternity. He died in December after drinking a bag full of alcohol as part of the fraternity’s pledge process. This particular night was a SAE fraternity tradition known as “brown bag night,” in which a “big brother” purchased alcohol and put it in a brown bag for each pledge to consume.

Ibrahim was Starkey’s “big brother,” but because he was not yet 21, Taylor allegedly purchased the alcohol on his behalf which, according to police, included 151-proof Everclear.

On the evening of December 1, 17 pledges gathered in a garage that fraternity members prepared with tarps and buckets and were instructed to drink all the alcohol in their bags by midnight while other members watched.

Police investigators determined that Starkey passed out at some point and several members of that fraternity put him in a car to take him to the hospital and further removed his pledge pin so he would not be associated with fraternity. On the way to the hospital he began to vomit so they took him back to the house and put him in bed.

Police said members checked on him until everyone went to bed at approximately 2 a.m. In the morning, Starkey was unresponsive and paramedics were called to the scene, however, not before the other pledges were booted out of the fraternity house.

At the time of his death, Starkey’s blood alcohol concentration was between .39% and .44%.

Ibrahim and Ellis were released on $50,000 bail. They each face up to three years in state prison if convicted of the felonies.

Taylor and Marszal were released on $10,000 bail. The each face up to a year in county jail if convicted of the misdemeanors.

Tags: adam marszal, brown bag night, cal poly san luis obispo, carson starkey, fraternity death, fraternity hazing, fraternity hazing death, fraternity pledge death, fraternity ritual, fraternity tradition, haithem ibrahim, hazing death san luis obispo, russell taylor, SAE, sae fraternity, san luis obispo, sigma alpha epsilon, zacary ellis

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 23rd, 2009forum at 8:46 amcontact and is filed under Fraternity Crimes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.