Deseret News
Salt Lake City, UT
June 17, 2009
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...jail-time.html
USU sorority member to spend 30 days in jail
By Ethan Thomas
LOGAN – One of the Utah State University students charged in connection
with the alcohol poisoning death of fraternity pledge Michael Starks has
been sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Whitney Katherine Miller, 19, pled guilty to unlawful supply of alcohol to
a minor, a class A misdemeanor, during a change of plea hearing last month.
This week she was sentenced to 365 days in jail, but 1st District Judge
Thomas Willmore suspended 335 days of the sentence, according to court records.
As part of her sentence, Miller will also have to prepare a presentation
that will be given to high school students and college freshman about he
danger of underage drinking, according to court records.
Miller will also be on probation for three years and is required to pay a
$1,000 fine.
Another defendant in the case, Brittany Packham, pled guilty last week to
unlawful supply of alcohol to a minor, a class B misdemeanor. A hazing
charge against Packham was dismissed last week also, according to court
records.
She will be sentenced on July 20.
Starks, 18, died after participating in an initiation ceremony for the
then-USU chapter of Sigma Nu. The initiation involved Starks and another
pledge being "kidnapped" by the Chi Omega sorority women. An affidavit of
probable cause states the pledges were stripped down to their boxers and
painted in USU school colors.
Sometime during the activity, they began drinking, prosecutors say. They
returned to the fraternity house already heavily intoxicated, and a few
hours later, Starks was found unconscious and not breathing.
Starks was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly afterward.
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