Terry enrolled at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and quickly decided to accept the bid from Alpha Tau Omega since his older brother had been an officer.

It was Big Brother/Little Brother night. Fraternity members allegedly drank little if any that night, since their job was to watch the pledges. After one pledge drained a 40-ounce bottle of beer and threw up, the brothers stopped him from drinking. Another pledge had stopped drinking on his own; drunk and stumbling nonetheless, he had to be helped to bed. Brothers arranged him in front of the toilet in what one member called the “prayer stance” — kneeling, with his arms draped over the cold porcelain rim and his hands propping his face over the bowl. A third pledge stretched out on the floor and slowly drifted off to sleep.  The brothers moved him to a bathroom, then later to a couch. Terry was the last to go down. He never woke up the morning of Dec. 1, 2000. At some point in the early hours, with the alcohol content of his blood nearing a lethal level, he choked to death on his vomit.

Though ATO members say they checked on him several times during the night, none was alarmed enough by Terry’s condition to call for an ambulance until it was too late. Stirling’s blood-alcohol level later was recorded at 0.33 percent. Another pledge was hospitalized with severe alcohol poisoning that morning but survived.

– Circuit Court of Norfolk County, Virginia, At Law No. 01-1762