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01-20-2019, 11:02 AM
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FSU Student Killed as Frat Member Shows Off Rifle
A Florida State University student was killed and a second student wounded early on Jan. 9, 2011, when a rifle discharged inside the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house near campus in Tallahassee, according to the Tallahassee Police Department. Ashley Lynn Cowie, 20, a Chi Omega sorority member from Orange Park, was struck in the chest and died. Keith Savino, 21, was hit in the wrist and survived. Officers were called to the off-campus chapter house at 1:16 a.m. on a Sunday, police said. Investigators said Evan Wilhelm, 20, a member of the fraternity, was showing friends a new optic he had mounted on his rifle when the weapon fired. Wilhelm, who told investigators he had been drinking earlier in the day, was arrested and booked into the Leon County Jail on a manslaughter charge. Wilhelm pleaded no contest to manslaughter, possession of a firearm on school property and culpable negligence with injury, according to court records. He was convicted in 2012 and sentenced to 20 years in prison followed by 10 years of probation. The case moved through the courts for years. A state appellate court in 2015 removed the trial judge from post-sentencing proceedings after prosecutors argued he favored the defendant, court records show. In 2018 the Florida Supreme Court declined to take up Wilhelm's appeal, leaving the conviction in place. Florida State's Lambda Chi Alpha chapter was permanently closed after the shooting. Recordings of the 911 calls placed from the chapter house that morning were released as part of the case and run about 12 minutes.
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