Three former members of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity at Washington State University in Pullman have pleaded guilty to providing alcohol for an event that ended with the death of a freshman pledge.
Maxwell Rovegno, Cameron Thomas and Nolan Valcik were each charged with one count of furnishing liquor to a minor and sentenced to eight months of supervised probation. They must also serve a day in jail and and pay $1,000 fine with $500 suspended for bringing alcohol to the 2019 initiation party where 19-year-old Sam Martinez died.
None of the suspects were charged with directly giving Martinez booze that fatal night. They are three of 15 students charged by the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in the case.
Martinez died after attending an Alpha Tau Omega fraternity chapter event in November 2019. The Whitman County Medical Examiner ruled the student’s death an accident by alcohol poisoning, noting his blood alcohol level was at 0.372 during his autopsy.
According to authorities, Martinez was dead hours before the first 911 caller reported him unresponsive.
The Pullman Police chief in June said they sought to charge some of the suspects with hazing but were unable to do so because the one-year statute of limitations had already expired.
Washington State University has declined to comment on the case. In response to the incident, the school, also named a defendant in the wrongful death suit filed by Martinez’s family, suspended the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity until 2026.
With News Wire Services
