Former Fresno State student, 19, dies of alcohol poisioning

By Katrina Garcia
The Collegian

A former Fresno State student described as a loving, talented musician was found dead Jan. 8 at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house.

According to the Fresno Bee, the Fresno County coroner said Jan. 11 that 19-year-old Danny Daniels Jr. died of acute alcohol poisoning, with a blood alcohol level of .34. Daniels had attended a party the night before at the fraternity house, located on Shaw Avenue.

While a student at Fresno State, Daniels played the trombone in the marching band and had declared a major in music and a minor in Japanese. He was also a pledge for the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, more commonly known as FIJI.

Maxine McDonald, executive director of academic enhancement services, met Daniels when he applied to the university. She can recall his anticipation of starting school.

“He was very motivated and excited about coming to college,” McDonald said.

Mui Vuong, an academic counselor for the Educational Opportunity Program, remembers Daniels from the Summer Bridge program, where newly graduated high school seniors spend three weeks living on campus and taking two courses through the university.

“He was loved by many of our students,” Vuong said. “He was very genuine and very approachable but reserved.”

Vuong vividly recalls Daniels’ passion for music and his natural talent for performing. Vuong said many of Daniels’ peers wanted him to perform in the program’s talent show. Daniels played a few instruments for the show, including wind instruments and the piano.

Daniels met with Vuong to map out a course schedule for the Fall 2005 semester. Vuong said they talked at length and had a plan for him to come back to school. The classes he decided on, Vuong said, were all music courses.

“Everything was about music,” Vuong said. “He said, ‘I just want to play.’”

But Daniels did not pay for fall classes and never enrolled for the semester. That was the second semester Daniels had not enrolled in classes, according to the Fresno Bee.

Misty Franklin, a sophomore criminology major, said she remembers Daniels as a person who was loving and always there through the good times and bad.

“He was very fun,” Franklin said. “He loved people— he was a people-person. He was there to talk to you whenever you had a problem.”

Although Daniels was not enrolled in classes, "he still loved school," Franklin said, “It’s hard to see something happen like this,” Franklin said.

Services for Daniels were held at Family Community Church in Fresno January 13. A shrine for Daniels was placed in front of the Fiji house shortly after his death.

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