2 from Dallas area charged in alcohol-poisoning death of Irving teen at Texas Tech frat party
Source: Dallas Morning News
Tom Steele
April 20, 2016
Two North Texan men were arrested this week in connection with the 2014 alcohol-poisoning death of a Texas Tech University freshman from Irving.
Eric Spenk, 23, of Plano was arrested Monday and charged with purchasing or furnishing alcohol to a minor. He was released the same day from the Lubbock County Detention Center after posting bond.
Canyon Brock, 21, of North Richland Hills was arrested Tuesday on the same charge and also posted bond.
The charge, a class A misdemeanor, carries a punishment of up to a year in jail.
Texas Tech freshman Dalton Debrick, 18, of Irving was found dead Aug. 24, 2014, at a home a mile from the Lubbock campus, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. His blood alcohol content was found to be 0.324 – more than four times the legal limit for driving.
Debrick, a pledge for the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity, had attended a pledge party at that house the night before, officials say.
Brock told investigators that he had left the party early to meet with his girlfriend, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit.
Spenk told police that the party included a whiskey-drinking race among the pledges, but he added that the pledges were not forced to drink, the Avalanche-Journal reports. “It was very clear that any time the pledges did not want to drink, all they had to say was ‘no,'” he said.
Spenk said he saw Debrick drink about a third of a whiskey bottle, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. He added that he and other members checked on Debrick and the other pledges after midnight and that Debrick gave him a thumbs-up to indicate he was OK.
Around 9 a.m., police were called to the house about a body.
Three other former fraternity members have been charged with providing alcohol to a minor. Cesar Chavez-Caraveo, 22, and Reece Walker, 22, were arrested last year and released on bond. A warrant for Joe Garcia, 25, remains active.
Texas Tech expelled Garcia and Walker. Brock, Chavez-Caraveo and Spenk were suspended.
Walker sued the school last year, saying he was denied due process when he was expelled.
The school’s Alpha Sigma Phi chapter was closed for at least four years.