Five MSU students will be charged in connection with the death of an 18-year-old Bay City resident who drowned in the Red Cedar River near campus in October.

Charges will be filed today in the death of Eric Blair, a Delta College student, against four female students to whom he paid money for admission and alcohol at an East Lansing party. The students face felony charges, which carry a sentence of up to one year in jail and a possible $1,000 fine.

A male student also will be charged with three counts of purchasing alcohol for a minor, a misdemeanor that carries a $1,000 fine, up to 60 days in jail and community service.

He will be charged for providing alcohol for Blair and two of his underage friends.

Police believe at least one of the students being charged knew Blair personally.

On Oct. 19, Blair told his family he was going to MSU for the weekend and promised he would not drink and drive.

He kept his promise and didn’t drive. Five days later, his body was found in the Red Cedar River, near East Shaw Hall and Bogue Street, with a blood alcohol level of .14. The legal limit to drive is under .08.

Police said Blair began drinking beer at Holden Hall with friends who had purchased two 18-packs of beer. Blair used a beer bong to ingest some of the beer. A friend gave Blair the alcohol in exchange for Blair paying his admission to a party.

Blair and his friends went to the party near Cedar Village Apartments on Bogue Street, where they were charged admission, which made alcoholic beverages such as jungle juice available.

“This shows the intent to get as intoxicated as possible,” Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said.

Dunnings said police believe Blair was asked to leave the party because he was too intoxicated. Police said Blair became separated from his friends and passed out in a parking lot.

“Some other students tried to rouse him, but he just muttered gibberish, so they left him,” Dunnings said. “He ended up in the river and died. We’re not sure how, but we don’t believe there is any foul play involved.”

MSU police Chief Bruce Benson said he hopes charging the people involved with supplying alcohol to minors will send out a message to students that police won’t tolerate excessive drinking.

“Five people are being charged criminally,” Benson said. “Their lives are forever affected. These are the consequences and dangers of binge drinking to excess.”

Benson said there have been nine alcohol-related deaths in the Lansing area since 1994. MSU police get at least one call for alcohol-related medical assistance per week, Benson said.

East Lansing police Chief Louis Muhn said the city department responded to 71 calls for which an ambulance had to be called due to excessive drinking.

“From a law enforcement standpoint, there’s a lot of drinking going on that’s dangerous,” Muhn said. “You only have to look at those who have died.”

Mary Beth Blair, Eric Blair’s stepmother, said she is not sure if charging the five students is the right thing to do.

“We don’t feel the answer is to ruin these other kids’ lives,” she said. “I understand how they would want to make an example of this - it’s not a game.

“It’s going to be a message for sure, but to say it will stop the partying, I don’t believe that. If it would help, I say go for it, do whatever it takes, but if this isn’t going to stop what the activity is on this campus, then I don’t want to see other lives ruined.”

Mary Beth Blair said she would rather the city be held accountable for her stepson’s death because there was no guardrail by the river.

“There is no guardrail and there have been other deaths,” she said. “Our family has just gone through hell.

“Every day we wonder, if there had been a rail would this have happened?”

Cindy McCue, the mother of Bradley McCue, a parks and recreation junior who died in 1998 after drinking 24 shots in two hours on his 21st birthday, said she has mixed feelings about prosecuting the students involved in Blair’s death.

“Each choice you make has a consequence, and this is the consequence,” she said. “As a mother, I say nothing will bring Eric or Bradley back, so you hate to see tragedy added to tragedy.”

McCue said what scares her the most about students drinking is that they don’t understand the consequences.

“Most people drink without understanding the mental aspect and losing the ability to make good choices,” she said. “You take risks you normally wouldn’t, including taking the risk to drink more.”

Shannon Murphy can be reached at murphy78@msu.edu.