The Athens County Prosector’s office announced Wednesday that all current and former students connected to Collin Wiant’s death have appeared before the Athens County Common Pleas Court.
Collin Wiant, of Dublin, was 18 when he died at OhioHealth O'Bleness from asphyxiation due to nitrous oxide ingestion in November 2018. A lawsuit from Wiant’s parents alleges fraternity brothers forced him to take the nitrous oxide, or “whippets,” at 45 Mill St., the unofficial annex house of Sigma Pi, where he was found unresponsive. Sigma Pi was permanently expelled from the university.
Joshua Thomas Androsac, 21, of Lewis Center, pled guilty to permitting drug abuse, a fifth-degree felony; two counts of trafficking in harmful intoxicants, which are fifth-degree felonies; and trafficking in cocaine, a fifth-degree felony. Androsac also entered a guilty plea to hazing, which is a fourth degree misdemeanor, and negligent homicide, a first-degree misdemeanor, according to a news release from the Athens County Prosecutor's office.
Androsac was ordered to serve 70 days in jail for the misdemeanors. The other charges will be held in abeyance pending the completion of the Athens County Empowerment, or A.C.E. program.
He was enrolled at OU from 2018 until 2019, according to a previous Post report.
Corbin Michael Gustafson, 23, of Furlong, Pennsylvania, entered a guilty plea to complicity to permitting drug abuse, a first-degree misdemeanor. The court ordered Gustafson’s plea held in abeyance pending complexion of the A.C.E program.
Gustafson and Androsac were the final people disposed of in relation to the investigation into the Sigma Pi fraternity.
“The fraternity participated in cyclical hazing,” Athens County Prosecutor Keller J. Blackburn said in the news release. “Each class was hazed as a part of being initiated into the fraternity and then they awaited the opportunity to inflict the same or worse hazing two years later upon new pledges.”
Blackburn has worked with the Wiant family and with representatives to try to pass Collin’s Law, which would make hazing a felony. Hazing is currently a fourth-degree misdemeanor in Ohio.
“The culture of silence and presumed consent with hazing must be stopped and legislative changes are necessary,” Blackburn said in the release.
The following people had already entered pleas:
- Zachary Herskovitz was convicted Feb. 22 of hazing. He also pleaded guilty to permitting drug abuse and was ordered to complete the A.C.E program.
- Dominic A. Figliola, 21, of Athens, pleaded guilty Feb. 27 to hazing. He also pleaded to permitting drug abuse, aggravated possession of drugs, a fourth-degree felony, and failure to comply with underage alcohol laws, an unclassified misdemeanor. He was ordered to complete one year of non-reporting probation for the hazing conviction. The other charges are being held in abeyance until he completes the A.C.E program.
- Cullen Willi McLaughlin, 21, of Northfield, pleaded guilty Feb. 27 to two counts of possession of LSD, fifth-degree felonies. The court held the charges in abeyance until the completion of the A.C.E. program.
- Saxon Angell-Perez was convicted of hazing, a fourth-degree misdemeanor, May 29. He pleaded guilty to permitting drug abuse and possession of cocaine, a fifth-degree felony, which the court held in abeyance until the completion of the A.C.E. program.
- Elijah Robert Wahib, 22, of Westlake, pleaded guilty June 23 to two counts of obstructing justice, a fifth-degree felony; permitting drug abuse; and two counts of hazing. He was sentenced to 31 days in jail for the hazing charges and was ordered to complete the A.C.E. program.
