Frat-Party Grudge Ends In Fatal Beating, Suicide Of Suspect

EDGEWOOD, Texas - Nicholas Armstrong and Jeremiah Wilkerson were both 21, and both had attended Southwest Texas State University. By all accounts, their paths apparently crossed for the first time last weekend.

By Tuesday, they were both dead.

Armstrong, a sophomore communications major and Tau Kappa Epsilon pledge, was beaten Sunday morning while he was sleeping on the couch of the fraternity house after a party. He died Monday.

Wilkerson was the prime suspect, but before law-enforcement officers could prepare an arrest warrant, he returned to his father's home in eastern Texas and committed suicide.

"We regret that this terrible tragedy has profoundly touched the lives of two families and at least two communities," said Steve Griffith, the police chief in San Marcos, home to the university.

Officials said the younger Wilkerson was among four people ejected from the fraternity party Saturday evening. He and another person returned to the house, where Armstrong was found sleeping.

"The motive for going back was to act out that anger" for being thrown out, said Griffith.

Armstrong did not know Wilkerson and apparently was uninvolved in the incident that got the group thrown out of the party. But he was beaten in his sleep, and police believe Wilkerson was the attacker.

Wilkerson fled to his father's home in Edgewood, about 250 miles northeast of the campus, and shot himself once in the head with his father's pistol on Tuesday. He had been sitting in a chair under an oak tree - a favorite resting spot - when he fired the fatal shot.

The younger Wilkerson reportedly attended Southwest Texas State in 1996-97. He was living in nearby Lockhart with his mother and working in Austin as a plumber, Griffith said. In Edgewood, a town of about 1,300 about 60 miles east of Dallas, several people said they didn't know the family.

Armstrong, however, was well-known in Baytown, near Houston, where he played on his high-school football team and was beloved by his community and his church family.

Armstrong had participated in youth choir at Grace United Methodist Church since sixth grade. He joined the U.M. Army, young Methodists who work each summer to repair the homes of the disadvantaged.

"He had this smile - I don't know how to describe it - it was like turning a light switch on," said Mike Manley, Armstrong's football coach.

"He grew up with a group of kids that started at elementary and they are still together today," he told The Baytown Sun. "He was a prince of a kid."

Donna Walker said Armstrong dived into any church activity or project that was asked of him and urged his peers to do the same. "I don't know how it's going to all work out in the final analysis, but Nick's life was a great example for all these kids," she said.

"The whole town is devastated," she said. "It just seems unreal that he could fall asleep on a couch and someone could come in and beat him to death."