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Drum major’s hazing left heartbroken mother wondering what really happened: 'He was beaten to death'
Robert Champion’s mother, Pam Champion, stared at her phone after hearing the heartbreaking news that left her breathless. Her son had collapsed and died.
“My son had a physical, and he was healthy,” Pam recalled to Fox News Digital. “I was trying to figure out what could have made my child just die so suddenly. I spent the whole day trying to figure that out, only to find out that it was all a lie. He didn’t just collapse and die. What happened was the unthinkable.”
Champion, a Florida A&M drum major, was killed in November 2011. He was 26. His case is featured in Investigation Discovery’s (ID) true-crime series, “Murder Under the Friday Night Lights.” It examines homicides involving high school and college football teams.
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In this Oct. 8, 2011, file photo, Florida A&M Marching 100 Drum Major Robert Champion performs at halftime of a game against Howard University at Bragg Memorial Stadium in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP Photo/Don Juan Moore)
Pam said it wasn’t until the next day that she heard her son’s name on the local news. The broadcast showed a photo of him she didn’t recognize. She soon learned her son had bruises on his chest, arms, shoulders and back when he died. Witnesses told emergency dispatchers Champion was vomiting before he was found unresponsive.
“My son didn’t just collapse and die. He was beaten to death,” said Pam. “He was murdered. And I needed to know what happened.”
Champion, who was part of the famed Florida A&M University (FAMU) Marching 100, was described as an inquisitive child who always had a passion for music. He fell in love with the marching bands of Georgia, where he was born, and dreamed of becoming a drum major.
A young Robert Champion with his family. (ID)
“He identified drum majors as gentlemen with their capes, long tail jackets and high hats,” said Pam. “He wanted to be one of them. Robert had a tender heart for people. He never met an enemy. He trained to play the clarinet, played the drums at our local church and taught himself to play the keyboard. Music was his love. And he wanted to share that love with others. He found joy in performing in front of a large audience and dancing.
“He was large in stature but very gentle. He even volunteered to be an organ donor because he wanted to help save a life. And that’s how he felt about people.”
As Champion thrived at FAMU, Pam vividly recalled one conversation she had with her son.
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Robert Champion leading his band (ID)
“Rob was talking about how people were trying to get him to do something,” Pam explained. “He never identified what that was, but he didn’t want to do it. My comment to him at the time was, ‘You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. You’re in control.’ But in terms of him using the term ‘hazing,’ that never occurred.”
Champion appeared “tired” the last time his mother saw him.
“He didn’t seem the same,” Pam recalled. “He was backing out of the driveway. I said, ‘Rob, the only thing I want for you is to be happy.’ And he said, ‘Oh mom, you know me.’ It wasn’t unusual for him to stay in his room playing his instruments, but it was just something about his demeanor. But he never disclosed anything that went on within the marching band.”
Robert Champion died in 2011. He was 26. (ID )
According to the Orange County Medical Examiner, Champion died of “hemorrhagic shock due to soft tissue hemorrhage, due to blunt force trauma.” The episode revealed that, just hours before his death, Champion had marched with his band during a football game between Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman University.
Pam claimed she had to call the school numerous times to get any details about what happened to her son that night.
“It took six months for the Orange County prosecutor at the time to contact us at all,” said Pam. “We heard nothing from them. Everything we got came from the media.”
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Pam and Robert Champion Sr. were determined to find out what really happened to their son. (Getty Images)
According to Pam, a reporter stopped by her house with “stacks of complaints that rose high,” revealing a horrifying culture of hazing within the band.
“This was no secret to the school, the violence that went on,” Pam alleged. “And the hard thing for me was, you had staff within the band that was supposed to be educating the students about hazing. There’s corruption and negligence. … And for the school to take a stance and say publicly that they were not responsible for my son’s death – how low can you go? Was my son Robert responsible for his own death?”
Interviews with defendants and other band members revealed Champion endured a brutal ritual known as “crossing over.” The university maintained that Champion, who witnessed others being hazed, consented to the ritual to gain respect among fellow band members.
Florida State Attorney Lawson Lamar announces charges in the hazing death of FAMU drum major Robert Champion May 2, 2012, in front of the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Fla. (Jacob Langston/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
With chances for initiation ending with the football season, fellow band members said Champion agreed to run through a gauntlet of people kicking and beating him with drumsticks, mallets and fists. The hazing took place aboard “Bus C,” which was described as the band’s notorious venue for hazing after its performances during FAMU football games.
What awaited Champion was a punishing ordeal in which about 15 people pushed, struck, kicked and grabbed at participants as they tried to wade down the aisle from the bus’s driver’s seat to touch the back wall, according to interviews. One witness said bigger band members waited at the back to make the final few steps the most difficult. Several others who went through it said the ordeal leaves participants dizzy and breathless at a minimum.
After finishing the gauntlet, Champion vomited and complained of trouble breathing. He quickly fell unconscious and couldn’t be revived. An autopsy concluded Champion died from shock caused by severe bleeding.
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Robert Champion, left, and his wife Pam leave after a news conference about new developments of the hazing death of their son Robert D. Champion, a FAMU drum major. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Champion’s death illustrated how ingrained hazing was in the band, although previous hazing incidents were well documented at the school in lawsuits and arrests. Two band members previously received serious kidney injuries during hazing beatings, and another member suffered a broken thighbone just weeks before Champion’s death.
Still, going aboard “Bus C” was voluntary, defendant Caleb Jackson told detectives. Pam said she and her family had a hard time believing Champion, who was outspoken about hazing, would agree to such brutality. They noted that “no one signs up for murder.”
Even though band members are required to sign a pledge promising not to participate in hazing, initiations were planned that night for Champion and two other band members. Along with “crossing over,” the bus was also known for “the hot seat,” which involved getting kicked and beaten with drumsticks and bass drum mallets while covered with a blanket.
A jury found Dante Martin of Florida A&M University’s Marching 100 band guilty of manslaughter in the fatal hazing of drum major Robert Champion. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Fifteen former band members were charged in Champion’s death. Purported ringleader Dante Martin was sentenced to 6½ years in prison in 2015. Jessie Baskin served just shy of a year in county jail after entering a no-contest plea to manslaughter. Most of the others were sentenced to community service and probation.
Jackson, 26, pleaded no contest to manslaughter and hazing in 2013. He was sentenced in 2015 to four years in prison. Jackson’s sentencing ended all prosecution in the case.
Longtime band director Julian White resigned in 2012 and contributed to the resignation of university President James Ammons.
Shawn Turner, Florida A&M University marching band drum major, enters an Orange County courtroom June 14, 2012. Turner was appointed a public defender in the hazing death of drum major Robert Champion. (Pool photo by Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
That same year, a report from the Florida Board of Governors inspector general’s office concluded the university lacked internal controls to prevent or detect hazing. It cited a lack of communication among top university officials, the police department and the office responsible for disciplining students.
A spokesperson for FAMU didn’t immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about Pam speaking out in the series.
Former FAMU percussionist Caleb Jackson April 16, 2013, before he entered a plea of no contest in Orange County court. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Today, Pam is co-founder of Be A Champion, a foundation that aims to raise awareness of the violence of hazing and other forms of bullying.
“We have to make it public that this isn’t acceptable,” said Pam. “We have to follow through with tough laws. … Every year, a young student loses their lives to this nice fluffy word called hazing. That has to stop. … And students have the power to end this. They just don’t know they have that power. They have the power to refuse. We need to combat this infectious disease we call hazing, one that is well covered, treatable and preventable.
Pam Champion, mother, 2nd right, and Robert Champion, father, right, listen as the verdict is read Oct. 31, 2014, after a jury found Dante Martin, a former member of Florida A&M University’s Marching 100 band, guilty of manslaughter in the fatal hazing of drum major Robert Champion Jr. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“Robert was known to speak out against violence,” Pam reflected. “He wanted to help others. I’m here to do that for him.”
ID’s “Murder Under the Friday Night Lights” is available for streaming on Max. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Timeline tracks diplomat’s path from college overachiever to alleged highway ‘road rage’ mass stabber
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The diplomat accused of fatally stabbing one person and injuring three others in a Sunday highway “road rage incident” once graduated with academic honors and built a career that took him to the U.S. State Department.
Jared Llamado, 32, fatally stabbed Michele Adams, 39, and injured Dana Bonnell, 36, Mary C. Flood, 37, and Heather Miller, 40, according to Virginia State Police. Llamado also stabbed his own dog to death, authorities said. The incident happened on I-495 southbound at 1:17 p.m. in Fairfax County, about 30 minutes from Washington, D.C.
Officials said the stabbings did not appear to be targeted, and none of the victims besides the dog were in Llamado’s car at the time. Llamado, who was armed with a knife, was shot by a state trooper in self-defense and died at a local hospital, authorities said. The trooper wasn’t injured.
“A Virginia State Police trooper was called to the scene at approximately 1:17 p.m. for a reported road rage incident. When the trooper arrived on scene, he was confronted by a male suspect carrying a knife,” Virginia State Police wrote in a news release. “The trooper then shot the suspect in self-defense. The suspect, Jared Llamado, 32, of McLean, Va., was transported to the hospital with serious injuries. Llamado later succumbed to those injuries. The trooper was not injured.”
Officials said Jared Llamado also killed his dog. (Facebook/Jared Llamado)
Police respond to a stabbing on I-495 at Little River Turnpike on March 1, 2026. (WTTG)
The U.S. Department of State confirmed Llamado was a foreign service officer with the agency.
“We are aware of the tragic incident that involved a Foreign Service Officer and occurred on Sunday, March 1, in Fairfax County, Virginia,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. “We extend our deepest condolences to all those affected by this tragedy.”
On Feb. 22, Llamado posted a picture with several friends on social media, appearing to be happy and upbeat.
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Jared Llamado was a foreign service officer with the U.S. State Department, according to an agency spokesperson. (Facebook/Jared Llamado)
“Dinner with my long time friends and coworkers!” Llamado wrote, in what would be his last Facebook post.
Here’s a timeline of Llamado’s work and education history leading up to the stabbing incident, according to his LinkedIn and social media:
2011 – Began studying at George Mason University:
In 2011, Llamado began studying at George Mason University to earn a degree in applied information technology.
2015 – Graduated from George Mason University:
In 2015, Llamado graduated from George Mason University with a degree in applied information technology. Llamado said on LinkedIn that he graduated with a 3.76 grade point average, which landed him on the dean’s list for seven of his eight semesters. He also said he graduated magna cum laude.
July 2015 to June 2018 – Employed as a network engineer at OSIbeyond
Officials said Jared Llamado killed one person and injured three others. (Instagram/jared.llamado)
June 2018 to June 2020 – Employed as an IT Network Engineer at ECC IT Solutions, LLC
June 2020 to October 2021 – Employed as a senior solutions engineer at R3 LLC
November 2021 to July 2024 – Employed as a senior network engineer at LMS Technical Services
September 2024 to March 2026 – Employed as a diplomatic technology officer at the U.S. Department of State:
While working at the Department of State, Llamado said he was living in Copenhagen, Denmark, but appeared to be back in the United States recently.
March 1: Police say Llamado went on a stabbing spree in a “road rage incident”:
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Authorities identified Jared Llamado, 32, of McLean, as the suspect in a stabbing following a crash on Interstate 495 in Fairfax County, Virginia. (Jared Llamado McLean Facebook)
According to dispatch audio obtained by Fox News Digital, the stabbing incident “started out as a property damage crash,” then the suspect began “stabbing people with a knife.”
The dispatch operator said that there were “multiple victims in the roadway.”
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A former Louisiana mayor has been found guilty of having sex with a minor after prosecutors revealed her teenage son caught her in the act with his friend at a 2024 alcohol-infused pool party hosted at her home.
Misty Roberts, 43, the former mayor of DeRidder, was convicted of carnal knowledge of a juvenile and indecent behavior with a juvenile on Tuesday, according to KPLC.
Roberts was subsequently released on a $100,000 surety bond, the outlet reported.
The verdict followed days of testimony from Roberts’ family members, teenagers at the parties and the victim himself as prosecutors worked to paint a picture of the booze-filled events leading up to the incident.
Prosecutors charged that Misty Roberts had sex with her son’s 16-year-old friend at a booze-filled house party in 2024. (Misty Roberts/Facebook)
On Tuesday, the victim took the stand to tell the jury he was drunk when he and Roberts – who was serving as mayor at the time – had sex, according to KPLC.
In closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Charles Robinson began by saying, “I told ya’ll at the beginning of the trial that ‘a lewd and lascivious photo is worth a thousand words.’ Here, you have it,” the outlet reported.
Robinson then pointed to a series of evidence exhibits showing Roberts posing with the victim while obscured by furniture, including photos from the night of the incident in which Roberts is seen wearing a bikini as the teen smiles up at her.
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Misty Roberts, the former mayor of DeRidder, has been found guilty of having sex with a minor. (Louisiana Highway Patrol)
However, defense attorney Adam Johnson reportedly attempted to convince the jury that key parts of the case were not properly investigated by police, including potential DNA evidence, witness testimony and video surveillance from Roberts’ home.
Johnson alleged the investigation was an attempt to “railroad” Roberts by lead investigator Melissa Welch, who previously testified she told the victim’s mother that witnesses need to “get on board or get run over by the train.”
Earlier in the trial, jurors were shown text messages between Roberts and her teenage son, with the pair discussing what type of alcohol the teens wanted for the party hosted at her home.
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Misty Roberts was serving as mayor of DeRidder at the time of the 2024 pool party, according to KPLC.
In another exchange, Roberts’ son warned her of the victim’s age, texting her, “He is seventeen,” according to the outlet. The victim was 16 years old at the time of the alleged incident.
Additional text messages from the night of the party show Roberts’ son calling the situation “crazy” and telling her that his younger sister was emotional.
Upon taking the stand, Roberts’ daughter told the court that she witnessed her mother and the victim “on top of each other” the night of the party, KPLC reported.
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Additionally, prosecutors revealed the victim’s mother texted Roberts to confirm she was not pregnant, with Roberts assuring her she was on birth control.
Roberts then screenshotted the exchange and sent the messages in a separate group chat, suggesting she would take the emergency contraceptive “Plan B,” the outlet reported.
A DoorDash driver also previously took the stand to testify that he fulfilled an order from “Misty C” to purchase the emergency contraceptive and leave it at the front door of the home.
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The driver then reportedly heard rumors of the incident and told jurors he believed his delivery was connected.
Over the weekend, Roberts’ ex-husband, Duncan Clanton, testified that Roberts admitted to having sex with the teenage boy and revealed that the couple’s children had caught them in the act, the outlet reported.
Text messages between the married couple showed Clanton telling Roberts, “I would deny what happened if you’re approached by anyone at the meeting,” on the day of a city council meeting.
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In another exchange, Clanton reportedly testified Roberts texted him, “I need you to deny it, please.”
Clanton added that while he refused to deny the allegations, he avoided talking about the incident.
“I can’t keep hurting others, friends and family. Lord knows I’ve done enough,” Roberts reportedly texted Clanton, KPLC reported.
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Roberts resigned from her position as mayor just days before her arrest in 2024.
Carnal knowledge reportedly carries a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison, with indecent behavior carrying a sentence of up to seven years. She will also be required to register as a Tier 1 sex offender, according to KPLC.
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Her sentencing is scheduled for April 17.
Roberts’ attorney did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Trump, BBC agree on mediator for $10 billion lawsuit over Jan 6 documentary editing controversy
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President Donald Trump and The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) agreed on a mediator on Tuesday to help resolve the president’s $10 billion lawsuit.
The BBC has come under intense scrutiny over a 2024 Panorama documentary about Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, speech delivered before the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Critics called the documentary misleading because it omitted Trump’s call for supporters to protest peacefully. Trump sued the BBC in December for both defamation and for a violation of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act for $5 billion apiece, seeking $10 billion total.
While ABC and CBS have both settled lawsuits with Trump in the past year, the BBC has vowed to fight the case. The two sides agreed on John W. Thornton, Esq., to serve as a pretrial mediator, who will seek a resolution.
President Donald Trump and The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) agreed on a mediator on Tuesday to help resolve the president’s $10 billion lawsuit. (Patrick van Katwijk/Getty Images)
“The BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally and deceitfully editing its documentary in order to try and interfere in the Presidential election. President Trump will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in lies, deception, and fake news,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told Fox News Digital.
The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s suit, filed in the Southern District of Florida Federal Court, was filed in a personal capacity and named the BBC and BBC Studios Productions as defendants. The parties have proposed a mediation session the week of Oct. 26. Mediation, a standard case management step required by the court, is contingent on the outcome of a jurisdictional challenge the BBC is expected to submit later this month.
“As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings,” a BBC spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
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President Donald Trump has tangled in the courts with several media organizations. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
The BBC previously issued an apology for the erroneous edit and said it had pulled the program from its platforms, but a spokesperson for the broadcaster added, “While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.”
The controversy began with a bombshell report from The Telegraph that featured excerpts from a whistleblower dossier compiled by Michael Prescott, a communications advisor hired by the BBC to review its editorial standards.
The whistleblower revealed that the BBC “Panorama” documentary released in 2024 had a misleading edit of comments Trump made at the rally that preceded the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The documentary omitted Trump urging his supporters to protest “peacefully” and instead spliced two separate comments made nearly an hour apart, making it appear he was calling for violence.
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And I’ll be there with you. And we fight — we fight like hell,” the documentary showed Trump saying, with no indication the statements came far apart.
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In reality, Trump said, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.” It was 54 minutes later that Trump called on his supporters to “fight like hell” for election integrity.
The New York Times referred to the ordeal as “one of the worst crises in its 103-year history” of the BBC. The blunder led to the resignations of BBC News CEO Deborah Turness and BBC director-general Tim Davie.
Turness insisted in an interview last week that the BBC does not have any institutional bias against Trump.
Trump’s legal team suggested the defendants “timed the publication of the Panorama Documentary to be close in time to the 2024 Presidential Election” and the value of the president’s “personal brand alone is reasonably estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars.”
Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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