A formal autopsy has confirmed what many feared from the moment Colin Daniel Martinez was found unconscious at a Northern Arizona University fraternity house in late January — the 18-year-old freshman died of acute alcohol poisoning, his death the direct result of a hazing ritual gone fatally wrong.
Martinez’s blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.425 percent at the time of his death, a level more than five times Arizona’s legal limit for drivers and one that medical professionals widely consider to be within the range where survival becomes unlikely without immediate intervention. He was found unresponsive on January 31st and could not be revived.
Court documents paint a deeply troubling picture of what happened that night. Martinez was one of four fraternity candidates who were given two bottles of vodka and told to drink until they vomited — a hazing exercise that witnesses said may have involved bottles partially diluted with water. As Martinez’s condition worsened over the course of the night, those around him reportedly checked his pulse, adjusted his sleeping position and looked up symptoms of alcohol poisoning online. No one called for emergency help in time.
Three Delta Tau Delta chapter leaders — all 20 years old at the time — were arrested on suspicion of hazing in connection with the death. The Coconino County Attorney’s Office announced Monday that it is now reviewing the case to determine whether more serious formal charges are warranted.
In the aftermath, NAU suspended the fraternity chapter from campus. The national Delta Tau Delta organization subsequently voted to permanently close its NAU chapter.
For Martinez’s family, the autopsy findings close one chapter of an agonizing ordeal while opening another — the long road of a criminal proceeding that may finally assign legal accountability for the loss of their son.
