A former Creighton student accused of cutting another student's throat was expected to accept a plea deal, has instead turned down the offer at the last minute.
Christopher Wheeler, a former Phi Kappa Psi fraternity member, will instead go to trial for the incident, which he blames on being hazed.
If Wheeler would have taken the deal, one charge would have been dropped, leaving Wheeler to plead guilty to the other. But his lawyer Steve Lefler tells 6 News that they have new evidence that shows Wheeler's actions were because of hazing. "We have some explosive information."
Lefler says Wheeler was forced to ingest illicit drugs and alcohol, prompting his client's erratic behavior the night he entered a woman's dorm room and cut her throat, and Lefler says Wheeler's frat brothers can testify to that. "It is interesting that their house is raised to the ground. I mean they didn't get disbanded for eight years by Creighton because they were choir boys. What was going on inside the walls of Phi Psi?"
Chief Deputy County Attorney Brenda Beadle tells 6 News she questions if hazing had anything to do with the incident at all. "I don't know that there's any evidence of that at all. In fact my information is that there is not. Mr. Lefler can say that he's going to bring that evidence but that's really ultimately for the judge to make that determination."
A hearing is slated for January where a judge will decide if any fraternity brother testimony will be allowed at Wheeler's trial in March.
(Photo courtesy of 6 News)