BATON ROUGE - Over seven years ago, Max Gruver died at a fraternity house on LSU's campus from hazing. For the family, the death of Southern University student Caleb Wilson is heartbreaking because the Max Gruver Act was supposed to prevent more hazing deaths.

"We worked hard to create these laws to act as a major deterrent against hazing," Max Gruver's father Stephen Gruver said. "No one believes the hazing they're going to do is going to end up what happened to my son. The Phi Delta Thetas did not wake up that morning saying, 'We are going to kill Max Gruver.' That's not the way it happened, but that's exactly what happened."

Stephen Gruver said his son died in an alcohol-related hazing event. No one called 911 for Max Gruver.

"In Max's case, no one did anything, and they did the same thing to poor Caleb [Wilson]," Stephen Gruver said.

Stephen Gruver said the act is strong, criminalizing hazing, making it a felony with penalties like fines, imprisonment and loss of privileges for organizations found engaging in hazing activities.

"It's one of the most ironclad hazing laws in the country, I believe it's one of the best in the country," Stephen Gruver said.

EBR District Attorney Hillar Moore said the act will be used in the prosecution of those involved with Wilson's death. As previously reported, Moore said this would be his first time using the Max Gruver Act in prosecution since it was passed in 2018 by the Louisiana Legislature.

"In the Max Gruver law which is hazing, it not only incorporates not only misdemeanor hazing, the act of regular hazing, but also when hazing involved great bodily injury or death, there is a felony component to hazing," Moore said. "At this point, at least one defendant was charged with misdemeanor hazing plus felony manslaughter."

Moore said this could mean more severe consequences.

"A misdemeanor against someone is committed and someone dies [whether] that's a punch, it carries up to 40 years. There's also the potential of negligent homicide," Moore said.

Stephen Gruver said the expectation of accountability must come from the top at the university-level and added there needs to be more anti-hazing education.

"This hurt our family to the core that another individual lost their lives to hazing in the state of Louisiana," he said.