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S u n d ay, M a r c h 16, 2025
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Southern death sparks painful talks
The outer layer of the exterior of the Pentagon Barracks begins to peel, exposing bricks underneath.
Hazing runs deep in Greek life culture
BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer
The criminal case forming against three suspects in last month’s fraternity hazing death of Southern University junior engineering student Caleb Wilson is one of Louisiana’s first uses of its felony anti-hazing law called the Max Gruver Act. The state Legislature passed the act in 2018 and named it after the LSU Phi Delta Theta fraternity pledge, who died from alcohol poisoning in a hazing incident in 2017. It allows prosecutors to bring a felony charge in hazing incidents of coerced consumption of alcohol, serious bodily harm or death. Former Southern student Caleb McCray, 23; Kyle Thurman, 25, an Omega Psi Phi fraternity member; and Isaiah Smith, 28, a Southern graduate student entitled “dean of pledges” for the university’s Omega Psi chapter, were arrested and booked by authorities on felony hazing counts tied to Wilson’s Feb. 27 death. McCray also faces a manslaughter charge. The Omega Psi pledging ritual that took place in a Baton Rouge warehouse claimed the life of the 20-year-old Kenner native, authorities said. East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore said he’ll take this fraternity hazing case that’s made national headlines to a grand jury to finalize criminal charges against the alleged perpetrators. Outside the legal arena, Wilson’s tragic death started a familiar saddening conversation in Baton Rouge and across Louisiana: How
STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS
House Speaker Phillip DeVillier, standing in a grass field where a proposed new wing for additional apartments would be constructed at the Pentagon Barracks, sees the expansion as a way to keep state legislators housed while the four-sided building is renovated.
House speaker proposes expanding Pentagon Barracks while building housing lawmakers undergoes long-awaited updates BY TYLER BRIDGES
Staff writer
They are called the Pentagon Barracks, and getting an apartment there from the House speaker is a choice perk for a state legislator. Staying at one of the red brick apartments means living in a historic building while paying cheap rent a stone’s throw from the Capitol. The courtyard in the middle serves as the focal point for gatherings hosted nearly every night
by interest groups and lobbyists during the legislative session. The downside to living there: Some of the ground-floor apartments flood during heavy rains and frequent leaks damage walls and ceilings throughout the complex. Old pipes have been known to burst. The state entity that oversees the Pentagon Barracks has been proposing for several years to undertake a complete renovation that would require each building’s residents to move elsewhere
for a year or so until the work on that building is complete. Now House Speaker Phillip DeVillier is exploring what could become a controversial idea, and it involves a quirk: A pentagon by definition has five sides, but the Pentagon Barracks consists of only four buildings. DeVillier has asked state officials to explore adding a fifth building in the empty space and then move the legislators to
ä See PENTAGON, page 4A
ä See HAZING, page 10A
Faith leaders divided over capital punishment in Louisiana at the Louisiana State prison to give Religious elements chamber Penitentiary at Angola, which the blessing of is expected on Tuesday, he will religion on what part of state’s death walk past two colorful paintings was about to penalty practices of scenes from the Bible. happen,” said
Hoffman
WEATHER HIGH 72 LOW 43 PAGE 8B
One shows Elijah, the Old Testament prophet, ascending to heaven on a chariot engulfed with flames. The other depicts Staff writers Daniel praying for God to save Before Jessie Hoffman Jr. him from the lion’s den. “That was the attempt of the enters Louisiana’s execution
BY ANDREA GALLO and MEGHAN FRIEDMANN
chariot, so now the condemned was going to go to God in the fiery chariot of the electric chair.” The Biblical paintings Hoffman will encounter near the Sister Helen death chamber will underscore Prejean, a Baton an essential fact about LouisiRouge native, Prejean ana: Religion remains a central Roman Cathopart of the life and culture of the lic nun and famed anti-death- state, including when it comes to penalty activist. “That just as the death penalty. Anti-death -penalty advocates Elijah was brought up in a fiery
Business ......................1E Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................6B Classified ..................... 1F Living............................1D Nation-World ................2A Commentary ................7B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
ST. PATRICK’S SPECIALS MARCH 14 - 17
are lodging a final push to spare Hoffman from being put to death, via nitrogen gas, for the 1996 kidnapping, rape and murder of Molly Elliott in rural St. Tammany Parish. Though Hoffman’s attorneys have centered their arguments on execution methods and legal precedent, the broader debate over the
ä See FAITH, page 8A
100TH yEAR, NO. 259
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