{"id":38455,"date":"2026-08-11T11:23:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T06:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=38455"},"modified":"2026-08-11T11:23:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T06:23:28","slug":"ex-fraternity-member-pleads-guilty-to-hazing-an-arizona-university-pledge-to-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=38455","title":{"rendered":"Ex-fraternity member pleads guilty to hazing an Arizona university pledge to death"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/10\/Fraternity_Pledge_Death_Arizona_68_1__s697x929.jpg?bf9a90e8fc027861223f0634d8f96f43da14e0ab\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A former leader of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/northern-arizona-university\/\">Northern Arizona University<\/a> fraternity pleaded guilty Monday to hazing and causing a pledge\u2019s death by making him drink excessively at an off-campus rush event.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/carter-eslick\/\">Carter Eslick<\/a>, 20, entered the plea to a felony hazing charge involving the death of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/colin-daniel-martinez\/\">Colin Daniel Martinez<\/a>, 18, in Coconino County Superior Court in Flagstaff.<\/p>\n<p>Under an agreement with prosecutors, Eslick would serve no more than four years of probation. A judge will determine the length and could also impose up to a year in jail at a Sept. 30 sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n<p>Martinez, who was pledging to the now-defunct <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/delta-tau-delta\/\">Delta Tau Delta<\/a> fraternity chapter at NAU, was found unresponsive Jan. 31. An autopsy found his blood-alcohol level was 0.425%, which is considered life-threatening.<\/p>\n<p>Coconino County Attorney Ammon Barker said the plea doesn\u2019t diminish the \u201cprofound harm caused or the sorrow of Colin\u2019s death.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Associated Press left an email and voicemail for Eslick\u2019s attorney, Burges McCowan, requesting comment on Monday. The AP also left a phone message with the attorney for Martinez\u2019s family.<\/p>\n<p>Eslick was serving as the fraternity\u2019s pledge master at the time, responsible for welcoming new members. He\u2019s no longer a student at NAU. Martinez was among four men pledging to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/delta-tau-delta\/\">Delta Tau Delta<\/a> who shared two bottles of vodka to ensure they vomited, according to court documents. Witnesses reported adjusting Martinez\u2019s sleeping position and checking his pulse and breathing to look for signs of alcohol poisoning throughout the night, the documents said.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The university suspended the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/delta-tau-delta\/\">Delta Tau Delta<\/a> fraternity after Martinez\u2019s death, and the national organization closed the NAU chapter.<\/p>\n<div class=\"permission\" style=\"padding-top: 25px;\">\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 The Washington Times, LLC.\n                        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former leader of a Northern Arizona University fraternity pleaded guilty Monday to hazing and causing a pledge\u2019s death by making him drink excessively at an off-campus rush event. Carter Eslick, 20, entered the plea to a felony hazing charge involving the death of Colin Daniel Martinez, 18, in Coconino County Superior Court in Flagstaff&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/10\/Fraternity_Pledge_Death_Arizona_6_467_c0-523-6160-4116_s1200x700.jpg?6d17dee925f03e6d7d681e63567ae04e3fc51a1a","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}