FAMU Drum Major's Hazing Death: 13 Face Charges

ORLANDO, Fla. — Thirteen people were charged Wednesday in one of the biggest college hazing cases ever prosecuted in the U.S., accused in the death of a Florida A&M University drum major who authorities say was mercilessly pummeled by fellow members of the marching band.

The charges came more than five months after Robert Champion, 26, died aboard a chartered bus parked outside an Orlando hotel following a performance against a rival school.

While the most sensational hazing cases have typically involved fraternities, sororities or athletic teams, the FAMU tragedy in November exposed a brutal tradition among marching bands at some colleges around the U.S.

"The death ... is nothing short of an American tragedy," said State Attorney Lawson Lamar. "No one should have expected that his college experience would include being pummeled to death."

Eleven defendants were charged with hazing resulting in death, a felony, and misdemeanor offenses that all together could bring nearly six years in prison. Two others face misdemeanor charges.

It was not immediately clear whether those charged were all students or whether they included faculty members or others involved in the road trip.

By Wednesday afternoon, two students were in custody at the Leon County jail in Tallahassee: Rikki Wills, 24, and Caleb Jackson, 23. Both are charged with felony hazing resulting in death.

Wills, who was also drum major, declined comment when reached by phone. No working phone number was available for Jackson. The names of the 11 others have not been released.

Jackson was serving probation for a felony battery charge, according to state and local records. He was arrested in 2009 by Tallahassee Community College police for battery and resisting without violence and arrested again by Tallahassee police a year later, according to county jail records.

Champion had bruises on his chest, arms, shoulder and back and died of internal bleeding, Lamar said. Witnesses told emergency dispatchers that the drum major was vomiting before he was found unresponsive aboard the bus.

The prosecutor gave no motive for the beating. But witnesses said Champion might have been targeted because he opposed the routine hazing that went on in the marching band or because he was gay, according his family's attorney.

Legal experts had predicted more serious charges, such as manslaughter or second-degree murder.

Champion's mother, Pam, said she was glad charges were brought but disappointed they weren't more severe. "I thought it should send a harsher message," she said.

Lamar said prosecutors didn't have the evidence to bring more serious charges.

"The testimony obtained to date does not support a charge of murder, in that it does not contain the elements of murder," he said. "We can prove participation in hazing and a death. We do not have a blow or a shot or a knife thrust that killed Mr. Champion. It is an aggregation of things which exactly fit the Florida statute as written by the Legislature."

Hazing in Florida was upgraded to a felony in 2005 following the death of a University of Miami student four years earlier. Chad Meredith was drunk and died trying to swim across a lake at the behest of his fraternity brothers. No charges were filed, but a civil jury ordered the fraternity to pay Meredith's parents $12 million.

Champion's death has jeopardized the future of FAMU's legendary marching band, which has performed at the Grammys, presidential inaugurations and Super Bowls and represented the U.S. in Paris at the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. FAMU, based in Tallahassee, has suspended the band and set up a task force on curtailing hazing.

Hazing has long been practiced in marching bands, particularly at historically black colleges like FAMU in the South, where the band is often as revered as the football team and members are campus celebrities.

Much of the hazing reported at FAMU has involved students trying to get into certain cliques within the band, and it has typically included punching, slapping and paddling.

Solomon Badger, chairman of the FAMU board of trustees, said the school is doing everything it can to eradicate hazing. He said of the charges: "I hope this wraps its arm around everything we have been plagued with the last six months."

Richard Sigal, a retired sociology professor at the County College of Morris in Randolph, N.J., who holds anti-hazing workshops at schools, said he could not recall another hazing case with so many defendants. Most cases don't result in criminal charges, and those that do typically end in plea bargains with little or no jail time, Sigal said.

Champion's parents have sued the bus company owner, claiming the driver stood guard outside while the hazing took place. The company said the driver was helping band members with their equipment.

The lawsuit described two types of hazing that took place on the bus.

In one ritual, students ran from the front of the bus to the back while other band members slapped, kicked and hit them. A student who fell was stomped and dragged to the front to run again.

In a ritual known as "the hot seat," a pillowcase was placed over the student's nose and mouth and he or she was forced to answer questions. If the student gave the correct answer, the pillowcase was removed briefly; a student who supplied a wrong answer was given another question without a chance to take a breath, the lawsuit said.

In a separate incident at FAMU, three people were charged with severely beating a woman's legs with their fists and a metal ruler last fall to initiate her into a clique of band members from Georgia. The woman suffered a broken thigh.

Also, four band members were arrested earlier this year and charged with hazing for allegedly punching, slapping and paddling five students from the clarinet section.

On Tuesday, a lawyer for two FAMU music professors who allegedly were present during a hazing of band members in 2010 said they have been forced out.

Former drum major Timothy Barber said the charges could help stop hazing at FAMU. "It kind of strikes a level of fear in people, that this hasn't stopped and it's not going to be tolerated," he said.

In some other major hazing cases around the country, four former students at California Polytechnic State University pleaded no contest and were sentenced to about a month in jail in 2010 in the drinking death of a fraternity pledge.

In 2005, four fraternity members at California State University pleaded guilty in the death of a student who was forced to drink large amounts of water during an initiation. The most serious charge was involuntary manslaughter, resulting in a one-year sentence for one member. Two others pleaded guilty to accessory to manslaughter and got six months.

___

Associated Press writer Kyle Hightower in Orlando and Gary Fineout in Tallahassee contributed to this report.

Loading Slideshow

From our partners

• 25 Signs You're A Hot Mess | Thought Catalog - thoughtcatalog.com

Comments

[Vondrazy Priest]

12:43 PM on 05/11/2012

Oh well.

[bdonate764]

10:25 PM on 05/06/2012

The day is coming when families and friends of the murdered victims will have to step forward and find justice that gives them closure. It is simply because the law protects murderers and has nothing for the families of victims. Six years for taking someone's child. Get serious.
It is not enough , in fact nothing is enough. Let us see some real punishment . How sad that a loving family has to deal with Animals who murder.

[trekie70]

08:10 PM on 05/04/2012

IMHO, the charge should be at least be some degree of homicide because the beating was intentional, not accidental. Of course, this is FL-wonder if the band members will try to claim self-defense under the "Stand Your Ground" law?

[Anon Ymouse]

05:16 PM on 05/03/2012

My condolences to the Champion family. RIP Robert.
Where is Rev. JJ and Al to console the family? Or screaming for justice!
They are probably not wanted! Is it the school or the family that doesn't want them!
Should be second degree murder for those ANIMALS! Brutal animalistic behavior killed Robert. Derion Albert suffered a similar beating at Fenger HS in Chicago, not hazing just the casual everyday beating that happens everyday in the black community. Just a different herd of animals. Is this what is expected when blacks get together?

[Shinynewthings]

04:39 PM on 05/03/2012

The offenders appear to be around my age; therefore, I am quite sure that they have grown up being very familiar with the zero-tolerance and anti-hazing policies that the vast majority (if not all) schools now have, yet they STILL participated in this vile, murderous act.

Fairly recently, at one of the high schools in my city, several football players were caught sexually assaulting a fellow player as apart of a hazing ritual. It just seems like this will never end. Actions have consequences and they should be punished. No one should be beaten down just to high-step in sync and blow into a clarinet, or for any reason. With that said, prison without rehabilitation is pointless. When rehabilitation is not the primary focus, we are only providing an offender a free doctorate in how to be a highly skilled and successful criminal, which explains the high rate of recidivism.

[tmduke55221]

12:46 PM on 05/03/2012

As i read this it sounded more like they were joining a gang rather then the band, gangs have their hazing to its called getting jumped in and for about a minute or so the new member is beaten, this sounds more like assault so where is the Black community leaders on this. One fool in the comments want to make a joke out of people asking where these leaders are since they were so quick to jump on the Trayvon case so why are they not jumping on this one? Why are they only picking and choosing which events to promote and others to ignore?

[Korkor]

02:26 PM on 05/15/2012

They did not jump in; Trayvon mom asked Al to help her spread the news. And that is how everyone got involved.

[ab2101]

12:36 PM on 05/03/2012

What is wrong with people???? Hazing!?!? I can understand gangs doing it bc they want to make sure they have "tough" recruits, but Bands? Fraternities? Ridiculous. What a way to ruin your life before its even begun.

[dmoongo]

12:25 PM on 05/03/2012

I wondered where they got the plot of last week's episode of "Harry's Law". Now I know.

[Lola from SC]

12:24 PM on 05/03/2012

Everyone on the bus, as well as the driver who stood guard and the faculty chaperones, deserve serious jail time. Those who actually beat the victim, obviously, and those who watched or knew that a hazing was planned and did not nothing to try to stop it, for depraved indifference. There would probably have been more severe charges if these monsters had beaten a dog to death, like they did this young man. It sounds like a terrifying, painful death, and my heart goes out to the parents, siblings, and other loved ones who have to live with images of this event for the rest of their lives.

[Trynn]

12:21 PM on 05/03/2012

Why must there be degredation and physical violence? What does this say about fraternities, sororities and now marching bands? What kind of children are we raising?

[hbssl]

11:20 AM on 05/03/2012

he must have been really well liked to have 13 people killing him.

[pllc]

09:53 AM on 05/03/2012

As fraternity pledges over 30 years ago, we all underwent the hazing rituals during "Hell Week" at our college fraternity. I can't remember for the life of me what was done to us nor what we did to future pledges, when it was our turn to dish out the rituals. I do recall that I was not impressed nor found them having any redeeming value in bonding the brotherhood more tightly together as those rituals were intended to do. FAMU marching band unfettered their fraternal traditions to the extreme and deservedly are held accountable for the tragedy.

[rkreyn]

10:41 AM on 05/03/2012

It was suppose to be a deterrent to keep undesirables out. Undesirables who were only joining for the benefits and had no intentions of fulfilling any of the service. I pledged back in the 80's and the things done to us were ridiculous. The first office I sought after joining was Dean of Pledge and begin the slow change that our fraternity had already started. Sadly hazing isn't going away. Money damages don't matter because it drives fraternities underground. Jail time is the only action that is going to get attention on college campuses.

[smp276dp]

09:51 AM on 05/03/2012

That is horrible. And we hope nothing like this happens ever again.
RIP.

[bdonate764]

10:31 PM on 05/06/2012

smp276dp .....Hope is not enough. We need real punishment. The family must see clearly that their loved child was not taken by those who get meaningless punishment. Let us see some real punishment. Show the good people that these animals will get their proper punishment. The key word is PUNISHMENT. Use it or this country will be lost to animals.

[smp276dp]

10:01 AM on 05/07/2012

I know you used it three times in this short post.
Punishment got it.

[ScottandSandra Cannon]

09:38 AM on 05/03/2012

Murder is murder, no matter what color they or you are.

[rkreyn]

09:31 AM on 05/03/2012

That is a very ignorant statement. Do a Google search on fraternity hazing then get back with us.

[Trynn]

12:19 PM on 05/03/2012

The majority of hazing cases I've read about involved white students. It isn't a "black thing".