13 Charged in Hazing Death of FAMU Band Member Thirteen people were charged Wednesday for their roles in the hazing death of a Florida A&M University drum major who was severely beaten in what appears to be one of the biggest college hazing cases ever. The charges were announced more than five months after 26-year-old Robert Champion died aboard a chartered bus parked outside an Orlando hotel following a performance against a rival school. The case has exposed a harsh tradition among marching bands at some colleges around the U.S. Champion was severely beaten by band members in November and had with bruises on his chest, arms, shoulder and back, authorities said. Witnesses told emergency dispatchers Champion was vomiting before he was found unresponsive aboard the bus. State Attorney Lawson Lamar said 11 of the 13 people will face a hazing resulting in death charge, a third-degree felony. If convicted, they could face up to nearly six years in prison. The other two people will face a misdemeanor charges. The names of those charged will not be released until they are all arrested, Lamar said. Legal experts had predicted prosecutors may file more serious charges like manslaughter and second-degree murder. The Champion family said they were disappointed. Champion's mother, Pam, said she was glad charges were brought, but disappointed they weren't more severe. Florida State Attorney Lawson Lamar, right, announces charges against 13 people in the hazing death of Florida A&M University drum major Robert Champion during a news conference in Orlando, Fla., Wednesday, May 2, 2012. The charges were announced more than five months after Champion, 26, died aboard a chartered bus parked outside an Orlando hotel following a performance against a rival school. Standing next to Lamar are Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent Joyce Dawley, left, and Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack) Close "I thought there would be more serious charges," she told The Associated Press. I thought it should send a harsher message. Prosecutors, however, didn't think they had enough evidence. "The testimony obtained to date does not support a charge of murder, in that it does not contain the elements of murder," Lamar said. We can prove participation in hazing and a death. We do not have a blow or a shot or a knife thrust that killed Mr. Champion. It is an aggregation of things which exactly fit the Florida statute as written by the Legislature. Florida's hazing law was passed in 2005 following the death of University of Miami student Chad Meredith four years earlier. Meredith was drunk and died trying to swim across a lake at the behest of fraternity brothers. No criminal charges were filed in his case, but a civil jury ordered the fraternity Kappa Sigma to pay Meredith's parents $12 million. Champion's death has jeopardized the future of FAMU's legendary marching band, which has performed at the Grammys, presidential inaugurations, Super Bowls and even represented the U.S. in Paris at the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. Hazing has long been a problem at fraternities and sororities, and in marching bands, particularly at historically black colleges in the South, where a spot in the band is coveted and revered as much as the sports teams. On HBCU campuses, band members are often given perks and treated like celebrities. Richard Sigal, who holds anti-hazing workshops at schools, said most cases don't end up with criminal charges. And those that do typically end in plea deals with little or no jail time. "I don't have any recollection of that many defendants in a case," Sigal, a retired sociology professor at the County College of Morris in Randolph, N.J. "I'm not saying it never happened, but I have no memory of such a large number of defendants in a case." Much of the hazing reported at Florida A&M has involved students trying to get into certain groups within the band. Those who don't make a group were often ostracized.