Posted at: 10/27/2009 12:23 PM | WHEC.com
Updated at: 10/27/2009 9:57 PM
By: Berkeley Brean

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SUNY Geneseo student death plea deals

See if you think this punishment is fair. Two young men pled guilty today for serving so much alcohol to a SUNYGeneseo student that he died. Their sentence?W

Alex Stucki and Devon McClain pled guilty to criminally negligent homicide. Stucki also pled guilty to tampering with evidence. For their role in the death of Arman Partamian, they'll serve weekends in jail for the next four months. We asked the district attorney if the sentence is a little light.

"The four months of weekends, is it light? It probably is," DA Tom Moran said. But he says it's what the Partamian family wanted. "The pain and anguish of the continuation of this process and the possibility that this would all come out at trial was something that dad wanted no part of."

Stucki and McClain walked into court today to admit what they did. Last winter, as members of the PIGS fraternity, they forced pledges, including Arman Partamian to drink heavily over two days. In court Stucki even admitted he pulled the pledge shirt off of Partamian after he found his body dead.

"He lost a friend. He lost someone he enjoy, enjoyed his company," Stucki's lawyer Larry Andolina said.

"That included trying to tamper with the evidence though. What kind of a friend is that?" we asked. "Well at that point you've got a young college kid. As he said in court, 'I wasn't thinking. I didn't know what do do.' That's one of the problems with youth," Andolina said.

All of the lawyers and the judge said this case should serve a lesson against the dangers of binge drinking.

"Our hope is that they pay attention a little bit. that they stop and think a little bit and that this out of control crazy binge drinking stops," Moran said.

The weekends in jail start for these two men this coming Friday. Both Stucki and McClain must serve hundreds of hours of community service and probation. The DA tells us this case is already having an impact. Moran says attendance at local bars in Geneseo is down and so are the number of house parties.

Daniel Wech of Williamsville, already pled guilty to misdemeanor charges for his role in the hazing incident and is doing weekends at the Livingston County Jail for three months.

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