USU sorority member to spend 30 days in jail

LOGAN – One of the Utah State University students charged in connection with the alcohol-poisoning death of fraternity pledge Michael Starks has been sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Whitney Katherine Miller, 19, pleaded guilty to unlawful supply of alcohol to a minor, a class A misdemeanor, during a change-of-plea hearing last month.

This week, she was sentenced to 365 days in jail, but 1st District Judge Thomas Willmore suspended 335 days of the sentence, according to court records.

As part of her sentence, Miller will also have to prepare a presentation that will be given to high-school students and college freshman about the danger of underage drinking, according to court records.

Miller will also be on probation for three years and is required to pay a $1,000 fine.

Another defendant in the case, Brittany Packham, pleaded guilty last week to unlawful supply of alcohol to a minor, a class B misdemeanor. A hazing charge against Packham was dismissed last week also, according to court records.

She will be sentenced on July 20.

Starks, 18, died after participating in an initiation ceremony for the then-USU chapter of Sigma Nu. The initiation involved Starks and another pledge being "kidnapped" by the Chi Omega sorority women. An affidavit of probable cause states the pledges were stripped down to their boxers and painted in USU school colors.

Sometime during the activity, they began drinking, prosecutors say. They returned to the fraternity house already heavily intoxicated, and a few hours later, Starks was found unconscious and not breathing.

Starks was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly afterward.

— Ethan Thomas