Andrew Kent, who police say admitted to his frat friends and to the father of a victim that he threw a bottle of Everclear into a bonfire that burned two women at a party, pleaded not guilty this morning to throwing said booze into fire.
The two women burned by the flaming Everclear have permanent scarring.
Kent allegedly threw the bottle into a fire at a fraternity party of more than 100 people near Hardy and University drives. The flaming booze burned a 17-year-old girl who was a prospective ASU student visiting from California and an 18-year-old woman who is a current ASU student.
The Everclear -- generally 75 percent to 95 percent alcohol and can power small motors -- temporarily lit the two women on fire. Friends helped to put them out, but it had already singed their legs, and one had burns on her back as well.
The prospective ASU student has second- and third-degree burns over 12 percent to 14 percent of her body, mostly on her calves and thighs. She was treated at a local burn center.
The second woman has second-degree burns on her legs, shoulder, and arm.
Police say fraternity brothers confronted Kent, and he admitted to throwing the bottle. The 17-year-old's father also called Kent and had a "confrontational phone call" in which Kent admitted he had tossed the booze into the fire, according to the report.
That night at the party, after the women had been burned, the fraternity asked the two victims to leave so as not to attract attention from authorities.
"Everyone was kicking them out to get their own medical attention because they thought it would bring too much pressure on the house," Tempe PD Sergeant Michael Pooley says.
Partiers sent the prospective student down the street to wait for paramedics, so as not to be too close to the house. And the other woman called her father, who is a fireman.
"I understand you don't want to be responsible," Pooley says, "but on something like this, you got to get your priorities straight."
Police charged Kent with two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of endangerment -- felonies. The arresting officer noted that Kent "did not display any remorse to victims."
