Baton Rouge Police on Tuesday arrested a third suspect in connection with the death of Southern University engineering student Caleb Wilson during a fraternity hazing ritual on Feb. 27.
Isaiah Smith, 28, turned himself in to police about 11 a.m. Smith was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on a count of felony hazing, a Baton Rouge Police spokesperson said.
Smith's defense attorney, Franz Borghardt, said Tuesday his client is a Southern University graduate student.
Smith held the title "dean of pledges" for Southern's chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, according to arrest records. Witnesses of the fraternity hazing Wilson, 20, a Kenner native, participated in told police Smith was in charge of the pledges at the ritual.
Smith's father, Todd Smith, leases the warehouse at 3412 Woodcrest Drive where the fraternity ritual took place. His business California Hardwood Floors operates out of the building.
Baton Rouge Police think the younger Smith is the owner of the black Dodge Charger Wilson was transported in to the Baton Rouge General-Bluebonnet hospital, where police were called about 2:40 a.m. Feb. 27.
Surveillance footage from the hospital shows Smith exiting the vehicle before removing an unresponsive Wilson from the passenger seat with the help of hospital staff.
Baton Rouge Police Chief Thomas Morse Jr. said Friday Wilson's death was the "direct result" of being punched "while pledging" to join Omega Psi during a ritual at the Woodcrest Drive warehouse. Morse also said at that time police were preparing warrants to arrest two additional suspects.
On Monday, police arrested Kyle Thurman, 25, the second suspect arrested in the 20-year-old Kenner native's hazing death. Thurman was booked into the West Baton Rouge Detention Center, after he was arrested in Port Allen by West Baton Rouge Sheriff's deputies and the U.S. Marshals Service, a West Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office spokesperson said.Â
Thurman was transferred to East Baton Rouge prison, and also is accused of a count of felony hazing.
On March 6, former Southern University student Caleb McCray, 23, surrendered to Baton Rouge police, marking the first arrest following the death of the Southern student who was a trumpet player in the university's famed Human Jukebox marching band.
McCray was booked into East Baton Rouge prison on one count each of manslaughter and felony hazing. McCray made his initial court appearance Friday afternoon, where his bond was set at $100,000, his attorney Phillip Robinson said, noting his client is innocent.Â
According to his arrest affidavit, McCray delivered the final blow before Wilson collapsed to the floor and began having a seizure. Fraternity members did not call 911 after Wilson experienced the medical episode, and waited to bring him to a hospital, sources said. An autopsy report mentioned in the arrest affidavit revealed a small bruise to the right side of Wilson’s chest.
During the Omega Psi pledging ritual, pledges were brought to the Woodcrest Drive warehouse and forced to change into gray sweatsuits. With Wilson and eight other hopefuls lined up according to height, McCray, Thurman and Smith took turns punching them in the chest using a pair of black boxing gloves, according to McCray's arrest warrant affidavit.
Each punch represented one of the fraternity's : manhood, scholarship, perseverance and uplift, a source close to the investigation told The Advocate.
Smith punched at least one pledge, but it wasn't Wilson.
Wilson’s full autopsy report is not yet complete, Baton Rouge Coroner's Office chief of investigations Shane Tindall said Friday. The cause and manner of his death remain undetermined pending additional tests which likely will take several months, Tindall said.Â
In Louisiana, hazing can be a felony under the Max Gruver Act, passed by the Louisiana Legislature in 2018 and named after the LSU Phi Delta Theta fraternity pledge who died in a . Louisiana's anti-hazing law prohibits hazing regardless of whether the targeted person voluntarily allowed it. Violators face a $1,000 fine and six months behind bars.
Southern University Board of Supervisors Chairman Tony Clayton, who is the 18th Judicial District Attorney in West Baton Rouge, said Friday in an interview he's pushing for the Omega fraternity to be removed from the university.
In 2005, Omega Psi Phi was kicked off Southern's Baton Rouge campus, archives from The Advocate | The Times-Picayune show. The university ordered a three-year expulsion, after university officials found "overwhelming evidence" a fraternity pledge was severely beaten, with injuries that led to internal bleeding.
Caleb Wilson's family will host a public memorial for him on Friday at the F.G. Clark Activity Center on Southern University's Baton Rouge campus. A viewing will be held from noon to 5 p.m., followed by a celebration of his life.
