Thank you to Dean for the update. This will be added as a hazing/pledging related death, although the charges of serving alcohol to a minor where a fatality then occurs are far more serious (possible 5-year sentence) in terms of possible sanctions. The following is the best coverage available on the update.
By Jonathan Edwards
Four FarmHouse fraternity members were jailed Thursday afternoon on suspicion of giving an 18-year-old the alcohol that killed him, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln officials are suspending the chapter indefinitely.
The arrests came nearly two months after Clayton Real, an 18-year-old freshman in his second week of college, died in his room at the fraternity at 3601 Apple St. A fellow fraternity member found him at 7:30 the morning of Sept. 5.
Investigators found that Real had attended a “frosh party” FarmHouse hosted the previous evening at 2009 S. 16th St., UNL Assistant Chief Charlotte Evans said in an email.
FarmHouse members provided alcohol to residents of the house in exchange for hosting the party, Evans said. Witnesses told investigators that organizers also gave alcohol to Real and other underage party-goers.
Real’s blood alcohol tested at .378 — 4½ times the legal limit to drive — and a pathologist ruled that his cause of death was acute alcohol intoxication, Evans said.
Police jailed the four fraternity members Thursday on suspicion of felony procuring alcohol to a minor resulting in death.
They are Vance A. Heyer, 21, vice president; Thomas D. Trueblood, 19, freshman social chair; Cory F. Foland, 21, new member educator; and Ross E. Reynolds, 22, member.
They face five years in prison after a 2011 law made procuring alcohol for a minor a felony if the minor dies as a result.
Police also cited three other UNL students: FarmHouse member William J. Miller, 21, for misdemeanor procuring alcohol and Marin L. Hartfield and Lauren A. Williams, both 20, for maintaining a disorderly house.
Police are still investigating but don’t expect more arrests.
UNL officials were in the process of suspending the chapter indefinitely, which means freshmen members will have to move out of FarmHouse and into university housing, spokesman Steve Smith said Thursday evening.
There are about three dozen active FarmHouse chapters, most of them in the Midwest and South, according to the Kansas City-based organization’s website.
Mark Fahleson, the local FarmHouse chapter’s spokesman, couldn’t be reached Thursday for comment.
Students charged in connection with Real’s death could face university sanctions once their cases are resolved, but it’s too soon to know what those consequences might be, Smith said.
“We’re watching this process very closely,” he added.
Real, from Grafton, was majoring in agricultural economics and eventually planned to go back to his hometown to work on the family farm and feedlot, his mom said in September. In high school, he played football and competed in rodeos, something he planned to continue doing at UNL.
He was diagnosed with Type I diabetes when he was 5 and had to use an insulin pump to manage it. His mother, Kelli Real, said he was very familiar with handling the disease.
The night after Real died, more than 1,000 mourners gathered in front of the Nebraska Union for a candlelight vigil. The vigil also remembered Keaton Klein, a senior accounting major from Lincoln who died July 14 while in the Czech Republic.
