The former Louisiana State University student found guilty in the alcohol-related hazing death of a fraternity pledge was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday — but will likely serve only a few months behind bars, officials said.
Judge Beau Higginbotham slapped Matthew Naquin with the maximum sentence for negligent homicide in the 2017 death of of 18-year-old Max Gruver — and suspended all but 2 ½ years of the term, The Advocate reported.
“Mr. Naquin, the key is in your pocket now,” the judge told Naquin. “You are being given a chance that Mr. Gruver didn’t have.”
Naquin, 21, will be up for parole after 7 ½ months, but could end up serving even less time, said District Attorney Hillar Moore.
Prosecutors said Naquin was primarily responsible for the death of Gruver — who had been at LSU a month when he died of alcohol poisoning, the morning after a Phi Delta Theta hazing ritual dubbed “Bible Study.” It took less than an hour for the jurors to convict Naquin in July.
“He singled out my son and killed him,” the victim’s dad, Stephen Gruver, said in court.
Gruver and other pledges were forced to chug 190-proof liquor during the Sept. 13, 2017, event, if they didn’t know the answers to questions about the frat or couldn’t recite the Greek alphabet.
A toxicologist testified that Gruver was a “dead man walking” after downing the booze. His blood-alcohol level was at 0.495%, more than six times the legal driving limit in Louisiana when he died.
He had a garbage bag tied around his neck to catch his vomit, Gruver’s dad said.
“Clearly he had too much, but it wasn’t enough for Matthew Naquin,” Stephen Gruver said. “The actions of this hazer resulted in my son’s death.”
Several witnesses testified at trial that Naquin disliked Gruver and wanted him out of the frat, playing a central role in the deadly hazing.
When it was his turn to give a statement, Naquin expressed his condolences to the Gruver family, but did not directly apologize.
The Texas native said he’d been wrongly portrayed as a murderer and and is “haunted by a single event.” It’s “simply not true” that he “had it out for Max,” he said.
Naquin’s former LSU roommate, Ryan Matthew Isto, 20, of Butte, Montana, and ex-LSU student Sean-Paul Gott, 22, of Lafayette, Louisiana, pleaded no contest last year to misdemeanor hazing.
They both received 30-day jail terms, and Naquin’s lawyer had asked for something comparable.
“Matthew’s conduct was no worse than theirs,” said attorney John McLindon.
Naquin will remain free on bond as he appeals his negligent homicide conviction and is due in court June 23.
In addition to jail time, he was sentenced to three years supervised probation once released, fined $1,000, ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service, give anti-hazing talks to high school students and write an apology letter to Gruver’s parents.
He’s also been charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly deleting thousands of files from his phone during the criminal investigation. His next court date on that charge is Feb. 11.
Phi Delta Theta was banned from the LSU campus until at least 2033 after a probe into Gruver’s death.