All-state high school wrestler. Business major. Twelve units.

Robert Owen Basinger, 22, made the decision to go back to school this semester after two years away from the classroom. He selected Sacramento State to study business.

On March 10, Basinger, an average college student, made a call to drink and drive, according to police. That same night, the student crashed his vehicle off Folsom Boulevard.

That night’s decision led to the death of Mary Sekul, a Sacramento-area elementary school art teacher and mother of one.

Five days after the accident, Basinger sat inside a Sacramento County Jail cell, charged with gross vehicular manslaughter and DUI.

“I grew up in Redding,” Basinger mumbled. He sat in a wheel chair, behind a glass and steel barricade in the county jail, just one day after formal charges were handed down.

Basinger agreed to talk to The State Hornet on the condition that he would not discuss the incident, or what led up to it.

Looking restless, Basinger avoided eye contact throughout the 15-minute interview.

“I really wanted to go back to school because I wanted an education so I could get a better job,” he said, stringing together his longest sentence – a stark contrast from his curtness throughout the interview.

Basinger went back to school because he simply wanted higher education and a better-paying job. With the likelihood of a firm conviction before him, Basinger’s familiar aspirations are potentially erased.

Sacramento Police Sgt. Matt Young said investigators could not release information regarding Basinger’s blood alcohol content or other factors which may have led to the crash. Young said aspects of the incident led officials to believe the Basinger was indeed under the influence at the time of the collision.

His next court date is April 1.

Mourners gather

Friday night, about 200 mourners attended Sekul’s vigil at the Sacred Heart Parish Church on J Street, just blocks from the where the crash occurred.

Standing at the front of the church, teary eyed, Claire Sekul, Mary’s daughter, greeted family and friends.

“Thank you for coming,” she said.

Jean Marie Gorman, a close family friend in attendance, said she was still reeling from the poignant news that Sekul died.

Gorman’s friendship with Mary lasted more than 25 years. And her friendship with the family will continue. Meanwhile, Gorman said, the family continues to cope with the painful shake-up resulting from Mary’s death.

“It’s so difficult; it so did not need to happen,” Gorman said in a telephone interview just hours before Sekul’s memorial service Friday.

“They’re still in shock,” she said.

Sekul’s family includes her sister, Anne Sekul, and daughter, Claire, both of Sacramento.

For Gorman, no imaginable atonement can be made – not now.

“It’s hard to imagine (anything positive),” she said. “My heart goes out to the young man and the family. Not only did he kill Mary, but he’s ruined his own life.”

Campus reaches out

Saturday night, while loads of students made good on their St. Patrick’s Day plans, a group of 12 students gathered in the University Union. The group is well aware of the dire consequence of drinking and driving.

That night, two fraternities, Lambda Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Pi, hosted Safe Rides. It’s a free, student-run service that provides transportation for students, faculty and staff who feel unsafe to drive – especially if they have had too much to drink.

The program, sponsored by Associated Students Inc., is offered Thursday through Saturday. Its number is 1-800-GO-4-CSUS.

Criminal justice major Jim DeCoite said when students become self-checkers of their alcohol content, they might go through a misleading process.

“You can still kind of focus, but not really,” he said. “You really can’t drive buzzed – it’s worthless.”

DeCoite said he has come full circle with Safe Rides – calling upon it for assistance when he needed a ride a few years ago. He now volunteers.

Nick Beard, another volunteer, doesn’t know why more students don’t take advantage of Safe Rides.

“Some of them are embarrassed,” he said. “Some of them have pride that they want to keep. They think ‘I’m a tough guy, it’s fine. I can go (drive).'”

Sac State health educator Cyndra Krogan’s frustration is palpable – she said she doesn’t have the perfect formula to convince students to avoid drinking and driving.

“I wish we had loads of students here,” she said, referring to Monday’s Safe Spring Break event, sponsored by Peer Health Educators.

The event included a DUI simulator that used a real car and computer imaging to mimic drinking and driving. About 30 students tested their abilities while “intoxicated.”

Krogan said she is doing her best to raise awareness – with freshman seminars, lectures and events throughout the semester – yet she is still puzzled.

Students still make the mistake of getting behind the wheel while inebriated, she said.

She said she has helped five students who got DUIs this semester.

Intervention is a tool used by Krogan. If a student gets a DUI and is a part of a campus organization, he or she might be asked to seek help in the form of a three-session intervention program, she said.

Steps one through three include an assessment of drinking habits, reflection on why the decision was made, discussion of values, career goals and a plan to avoid a future downfall.

“We are not doing a good job when we point fingers,” Krogan said about her approach. Krogan is doing her part, and wants to figure out why younger people make rash and sometimes deadly decisions.

“A lot of times we don’t have the capacity to say ‘this can happen to me,'” she said, referring to the possibility of a tragedy.

“Something has to happen for us to do something – that’s the unfortunate thing,” Beard said.

Gamaliel Ortiz can be reached at [email protected].

Watch an interview with Safe Rides volunteers: