7 Face Trial in Hazing Death

Seven men have been ordered to stand trial in the death of a Cal State Chico student who died after drinking large amounts of water during a fraternity initiation incident.

Butte County Superior Court Judge Stephen Vincent ruled Friday that there was sufficient evidence for four former members of the Chi Tau fraternity to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter and hazing charges and for three others to face hazing charges.

Prosecutors said Matthew Carrington, 21, of Pleasant Hill, Calif., died Feb. 2 after he and another Chi Tau pledge, Michael Quintana, 20, were ordered to drink and douse themselves with water from five-gallon jugs as fans blasted them with cold air in a fraternity house basement.

“If we spilled the water, they yelled at us; or if we weren’t drinking long enough, they yelled at us,” Quintana testified at a preliminary hearing. “Pretty much they were always looking for something to yell at us about.” He said the initiation also required the pledges to do push-ups in raw sewage and lie on their backs, feet in the air, as they were doused with water and sang a song called “I’m a Little Cockroach.”

Carrington collapsed about 5 a.m. and died later at Enloe Medical Center despite efforts by paramedics to resuscitate him.

Clyde Blackmon, an attorney for one of the defendants, Jerry Ming Lim, 25, said there was no evidence that the fraternity members conducting the initiation knew that “drinking water, even copious amounts of water, could lead to the death of a human being.”

But Vincent ruled that Lim; Gabriel Maestretti, 22; Carlos Abrille, 22; and John Fickes, 19, should stand trial on felony charges of involuntary manslaughter and misdemeanor hazing charges. He also ordered Richard Hirth, 22; Michael Fernandez, 19; and Trent Stiefvater, 20, tried on misdemeanor hazing charges.