At the time of his death, Maxwell Gruver had a blood-alcohol content level of 0.495—more than six times the legal limit for driving, according to East Baton Rouge Coroner Beau Clark.
The legal blood-alcohol limit for driving in Louisiana is 0.08%. Gruver’s death has been ruled an accident.
Gruver, 18, died last month after a night of heavy drinking at the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house at LSU. Police say his death was the result of hazing and today multiple people were arrested.
One of the 10 suspects—Matthew Alexander Naquin, 19, of Boerne, Texas—also faces a negligent homicide charge.
Eight of the suspects are LSU students and were active members of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, university spokesman Ernie Ballard says. All 10 turned themselves into LSU Police after warrants were issued for their arrests. The hazing charges against all 10, whose ages range from 18 to 21, are misdemeanors.
LSU President F. King Alexander says in a statement that the arrests “underscore that the ramifications of hazing can be devastating.”
Gruver was pronounced dead at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical on Sept. 14 after fraternity members found him lying on a couch at the fraternity house and couldn’t tell if he was breathing, police said.
Clark concluded Gruver died of acute alcohol intoxication with aspiration. The autopsy found Gruver inhaled vomit and other fluid into his lungs, Clark says. He ruled the death an accident.
Witnesses told police that the fraternity’s pledges were forced to drink to excess on the night before Gruver’s death, during a game or initiation ritual called “Bible Study” that required pledges to drink if they incorrectly answered questions about the fraternity.
A witness told police that Gruver was “highly intoxicated” when fraternity members laid him on a couch and left the house sometime early on Sept. 14. Around 11 a.m., members found Gruver still on the couch with a weak pulse, police said. Two people drove him to a hospital, where he died later that day.
