No Contest Plea In Student Alcohol Poisoning Death From UCI

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — A 23-year-old man pleaded no contest and was fined for his part in the alcohol poisoning death of a fellow UC Irvine fraternity member in 2019, according to court records.

The former college student, Mohamed Ibragim Kharaev, pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count of allowing a party or gathering at which underage drinking is permitted. This was a plea deal offered by Orange County Superior Court Judge John Adams, who ordered the defendant to pay $750 to cover court costs and a fine of $150 as well as a $35 criminal conviction assessment fee.

Kharaev is the fourth of the five defendants to plead no contest in the alcohol overdose death of 18-year-old Noah Domingo on Jan. 12, 2019, in an off-campus fraternity house in Irvine.

Domingo, a resident of La Crescenta and a freshman at UC Irvine, had joined the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity several months before attending a "Big Brother Night" party where he had been drinking, prosecutors said.

At the time of Domingo's death, Edgar J. Dormitorio, the interim vice chancellor of student affairs at UC Irvine, placed the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity on interim suspension.

"This means that the fraternity has been directed to cease all of its activities pending the investigation of the Irvine Police Department and review of the incident" by the university, Dormitorio wrote in a statement to the campus community. The police did not make that decision to shutter the fraternity, the university suspended the fraternity of their own accord, Irvine Police Spokeswoman Kimberly Mohr told Patch.

Zavier Larenz Brown, 23, is awaiting trial and next due in court Feb. 23 in the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.

Investigators did not find any evidence that hazing played a part in Domingo's death, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

Related:

College Student Dies; Fraternity Suspended At UC Irvine: 2019