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Hazing death at Chico State
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Matthew Carrington was a victim of an initiation rite as old as male bonding: hazing. And as detective Greg Keeney had discovered, this hazing ritual had been bizarre.
Besides the humiliations, the exercises, the boys had been forced to consume, by Keeney’s estimate, 25 gallons of water.
Morrison: Had you ever heard of such a thing before?
Det. Keeney: No. None of us knew that drinking a bunch of water could kill you.
A month after Matt’s death, the district attorney, Mike Ramsey, held a press conference announcing that seven of Matt’s fraternity brothers had been arrested—charged with illegal hazing.
That much was expected. What made California legal histories were the other charges brought against Maestretti and three others Chi Taus: involuntary manslaughter.
The possible penalty: Four years in prison.
Debbie Smith was still numb from her son’s death, unbelieving at what had happened that night at the frat house.
Debbie Smith: Not until they had the press conference did we get the grueling details. And that was -
Keith Morrison, Dateline correspodent: It cannot have been easy for you.
Smith: Oh, my God, that experience was awful. To have to hear what they did to him. I was in shock. I mean, I thought I knew what went on down there. I thought it was an accident. I didn’t know, you know that he could have been saved.
Could Matthew’s life have been saved? Maybe.
Remember, before his fraternity brothers called 911, they left Matt on this couch, dying, for close to an hour.
Morrison: When he collapsed, there was a decision not to call 911 because you were about to get the recognition of the fraternity back.
Maestretti: As far as I know that was—
Morrison: Didn’t want to get in trouble.
Maestretti: That wasn’t the issue. As far as I know. Like I said, I don’t really remember that.
Quintana: And I look back now and I see that they were just afraid. Because they were afraid of getting in trouble because they knew what they were doing was wrong.
Morrison: Do you think that really was what they were thinking at that moment?
Quintana: Looking back on it now, oh yes, it definitely was.
Maestretti and the others pleaded not guilty and as they waited for trial, maintained a determined, stoic silence.
Until Michael Quintana took the stand at the preliminary hearing. While pointing an accusing finger, he told the court what he had seen and heard the night Matt Carrington was killed.
Quintana (testimony): A minute into it is when he started leaking out of his mouth and out of his nose... there was this orange kind of foamy blood ...
On the stand for five hours while one defense attorney after another tried to put a dent in his story.
Defense Attorney: You wrote out, or you gave a number of statements in this matter, is that correct?
Quintana: yes.
Defense Attorney: And were you trying to be honest as you possibly could be?
Quintana: Everything I’ve ever said about this case I’ve been as honest as I can.
Defense attorney: Including today?
Quintana: Correct.
Defense Attorney: At no time have you attempted to embellish anything in order to deflect any attention from yourself?
Quintana: No.
Quintana was unflappable, his testimony damning.
Defense Attorney: I asked you did you have blankets and pillows and you said, “no.” is that right?
Quintana: No. That is not correct.
If a jury believed this young man’s harrowing story, the fraternity brothers could be spending years in prison.
Two weeks before the trial was to begin, first Maestretti, then all the others, were asking for plea deals. Guilty pleas in exchange for sentences of a year or less.
And the prosecutor answered: maybe. But only if Matt’s mother agreed, and how could she?
Morrison: How would you expect her to feel about you?
Maestretti: I’ll expect her to hate me till the day she dies.
But the mother, who loved her son so dearly, was unable to find it in her heart to hate his killers.
Matthew Carrington’s mother came to court, and with tears flowing down her cheeks; she read a statement agreeing to the plea deal on one condition: Gabe Maestretti and all the rest of them would have to agree to educate college students about the dangers of hazing.
Smith: So that other lives can be saved and through this maybe we can someday put a stop to hazing altogether.
Maestretti: Her heart is amazing.
In the end the fraternity brothers got sentences of 1 to 12 months and have been ordered by the court, in accordance to Debbie’s wishes, to take part in an anti-hazing educational campaign. And that’s why they talked to us.
Maestretti: That night was just supposed to be stupid. Had no idea it was dangerous. Had no idea.
Morrison: Why should anybody believe that you’re now going to commit your life to somehow making up for what you’ve done?
Maestretti: Honesty I don’t care what anybody else believes. It doesn’t matter anymore. What you think about me, what anybody thinks about me personally, doesn’t matter. The only way, the only way for us to stop what’s going on is for there to be fear from college students. That they say, “okay, well there’s people who are being punished for hazing.” That’s what matters.
The old fraternity house in Chico is deserted now.
Det. Keeney: It’s just sitting empty.
Morrison: Who owns it?
Det. Keeney: Don’t know.
Morrison: Don’t know?
Detective Keeney says no individual or organization wishes to lay claim to the property... there could be liability concerns, he says.
Det. Keeney: And I don’t know if the owner is going to be stepping forward any time soon.
And up and down fraternity row, says Detective Keeney, it’s been a little quieter.
Smith: The worst thing, I think, that could happen is to find out that another mother is going through what I’m going through. That another family’s been ripped apart like our family’s been ripped apart. I don’t want to see that happen to another family.
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