SX-SLO: No confessions, no eyewitnesses or evidence

[hoosier]

News briefs from California's Central Coast

The Associated Press
Associated Press


SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. - Prosecutors decided not to file manslaughter charges against three Signa Chi fraternity members in the death of a student at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.

The district attorney's office announced Monday there wasn't enough evidence to file charges in the April 4, 2002, death of Cal Poly student Brian Gillis, 19, who died after taking the hallucinogenic drug GHB.

"We don't have any confessions, no eyewitnesses or any physical evidence recovered" to prove such charges, Chief Deputy District Attorney Stephen Brown said.

Patricia Gillis, mother of the dead teenager, was upset with the decision.

"A felony crime has been committed," she said.

Prosecutors said they needed to prove that fraternity members either aided and abetted Gillis' use of the drug or failed to seek medical attention when they knew his life was in danger.

The Gillis family settled a civil lawsuit for $357,000 with various members of the Sigma Chi fraternity, which was kicked off campus amid hazing violations in 2000.