Student's death five years ago still resonates on U. Oklahoma campus

By Hailey Branson, Oklahoma Daily/UWire

Published Oct. 6, 2009

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA -- The memory is fading from the University of Oklahoma campus.

It is an effect of time, an effect of an ever-changing presence on a four-year campus.

But that memory of what happened five years ago today is far from gone.

Early Thursday, Sept. 30, 2004, OU freshman Blake Adam Hammontree, 19, was found dead in the Sigma Chi fraternity house at 1405 Elm Ave. Hammontree, a Sigma Chi pledge, died of alcohol poisoning, the medical examiner ruled, 
according to Norman Police Department Capt. Leonard Judy.

“It, to me, was one of the most difficult things I’ve gone through as president of the university,” OU President David Boren said last week. “It was so painful.”

‘A hall party, in essence, out of control’

The night before Hammontree was found, the fraternity was having its big-brother, little-brother party, an event during which pledges were matched with older members as mentors.

The event became a raucous party, and alcohol was served out of members’ rooms, according to an affidavit written by Detective Jim Parks of the Norman Police Department, and cited in The Daily in October 2004.

An anonymous student cited as “a former Sigma Chi pledge who wished to remain anonymous” told The Daily that pledges were pressured to binge drink during such parties.

“It was a hall party, in essence, out of control,” Boren said last week. “And the whole scene was such that it reflected the chaos of what had gone on.”

At some point, Hammontree laid down in a second-floor bedroom belonging to his Sigma Chi older brother, John Frame, a sophomore.

Hammontree was believed to have been drinking beer and Hot Damn, a cinnamon schnapps shot, Tim Kuykendall, the district attorney at the time, said a week later.

Hammontree had been helped to a bathroom, where he vomited multiple times, according to the affidavit.

At about 10:30 a.m. the next morning, Sigma Chi members found Hammontree “cold, stiff, purple and beyond resuscitation,” the affidavit stated.

Norman police received a call from the house at 10:48 a.m. Thursday morning for a “possible medical call,” according to the police incident report filed afterward. Police found Hammontree’s body in the room.

It was later determined that his blood alcohol level was .42, or five times the legal limit for drunken driving. A blood alcohol level of .35 is comparable to surgical anesthesia, according to information from OU Health Services.

“In this case, no one thought to take him to the emergency room,” Boren said last week. “No one called a medical professional. You wish that they had.”

The aftermath

Within hours of police finding Hammontree’s body, Boren announced the closure of the Sigma Chi house and the suspension of the fraternity’s activities.

The next week, police arrested Cody Barrington, a 21-year-old Sigma Chi member. Barrington was charged with a felony count of furnishing alcohol to a minor. The alcohol he purchased was believed to be the same kind Hammontree was drinking the night he died.

The Cleveland County district attorney’s office later issued subpoenas to other witnesses to Hammontree’s death, some of whom were Sigma Chi members.

Kuykendall told The Daily at the time that the witnesses were given subpoenas requiring them to testify before the Oklahoma Multi-County Grand Jury because they were uncooperative with the investigation into Hammontree’s death.

Testifying would serve the primary purpose of bringing more details to light, rather than incriminating the individuals, Kuykendall said.

Four members of Sigma Chi testified before the grand jury on November 16.

Alcohol committee and a new policy

On Oct. 6, 2004, Boren announced the creation of a 20-member committee of student group leaders, faculty, staff and alumni as well as Kuykendall (who also was the Phi Delta Theta adviser) to report to him about alcohol abuse and underage drinking on campus.

Kuykendall later was replaced on the committee because of his involvement in the investigation.

Less than a month after the committee was formed, on October 28, police sent a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity to the emergency room after finding him intoxicated in his dorm room.

“What’s disconcerting to me is how little impact (Hammontree’s death) seems to have,” Boren told The Daily that November.

Boren announced on December 2 a 15-point policy to curb alcohol abuse and underage drinking, developed with the input of the committee.

Major points within the policy included making fraternities and residence halls dry, a mandatory “three strikes” policy for students and organizations, the elimination of unregulated summer rush activities by fraternities and the establishment of the SafeRide voucher system through a local taxi or public transportation company.

Boren said in an interview last week that campus is not completely dry because there are still events held on campus in which third party vendors are allowed to sell drinks to those 21 and older. He said he understands that there are people who drink responsibly.

Policy approved among string of alcohol-related incidents

The OU Board of Regents approved Boren’s policy on Dec. 6, 2004, one day after a freshman, Charles David Palmisano, was taken to the hospital after police found him intoxicated in Walker Center.

Three days before the policy was approved, December 3, a different student, an unnamed male, was sent to the hospital from the Gamma Phi Beta sorority house after police found him intoxicated and vomiting.

Sources told The Daily days later that the student was a former member of Sigma Chi.

On December 8, another student, a 21-year-old Couch Center resident, was sent to the hospital after being found by police in a lounge. He had drank a lot of alcohol while taking prescription pills, he told the police.

The enforcement of the new alcohol policy began on Jan. 18, 2005.

Several amendments to the alcohol policy have been made in the years following its enactment.

Boren said last week that he is happy with the steps he took with the committee and the policy and that if he had to do it all over again, he would do it the same way.

Sourcing: A variety of archival information, including past reporting and information from The Oklahoma Daily, police and court records were used in combination with recent interviews for this article.