Five enter plea agreements in Coffey hazing death

Every day, Andrew Coffey’s parents light a candle at their Pompano Beach home. It’s a painful reminder their son is no longer with them.

“A candle gets lit every morning and it burns until it can burn no more,” Coffey’s mother, Sandy, said tearfully in a plea hearing Monday for five men charged with her son’s death. “No parent should have to light a candle remembering their son next to his ashes.”

She recalled how Tallahassee and Florida State were Coffey’s first stop on his way to joining the U.S. Navy. But she, her husband Tom and their daughter, will never get to see the 20-year-old don an FSU cap and gown or military uniform.

Coffey died of alcohol poisoning while pledging FSU’s Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. At a November house party, he drank an entire bottle of Wild Turkey 101 bourbon at the coercion of older fraternity members, investigators say.

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On Monday, Kyle Bauer, Brett Birmingham, Christopher Hamlin, Conner Ravelo and John Ray pleaded guilty to two counts of misdemeanor hazing.

Each will spend 60 days in jail, except for Ravelo who because of his cooperation with investigators will spend 30 days. He has already spent 20 days in the Leon County jail.

Additionally, the men will be on probation for the next two years and be required to speak publicly about hazing when asked to and be required to write a letter of apology to the Coffey family.

The men faced five years in prison if convicted of the original felony hazing charges.

Four other defendants – Luke Kluttz, Anthony Petagine, Anthony Oppenheimer and Clayton Muehlstein – are scheduled for trial in June on third-degree felony hazing charges.

Ravelo, who was Coffey’s Big Brother and gave him the bottle of bourbon, tried several times since November to reach out to the Coffey family to apologize.

He was advised to wait until the criminal proceedings were completed.

He got his chance Monday morning following his plea.

“I’m sorry for not thinking, sorry for not acting the way I was raised to act,” Ravelo said. “I recognize that what happened to Andrew could have happened to me or someone else and it’s not a matter of if, but when. I can make a promise to you that moving forward I will be a part of the solution and not part of the problem.”

The Coffeys have filed a civil suit against the nine men charged with their son’s death, as well as Pi Kappa Phi, the shuttered FSU chapter’s former adviser and several others.

They have also joined more than a dozen other families around the country to form PUSH, Parents United to Stop Hazing, a nationwide effort to eradicate the practice from college campuses.

Coffey’s death has shattered their family dynamic, Sandy Coffey said.

“Our world has been rocked by this. There is not any normal for us; time will not heal our wounds. We are completely devastated by his death and the way in which he died,” she said in court. “Last year, four young men died pledging a fraternity. Fraternity hazings need to stop.”

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.