Ryan Delanty Gave Danny Santulli the Vodka That Would Nearly Kill Him During a Hazing Ritual

On Oct. 19, 2021, University of Missouri student Danny Santulli was at the Phi Gamma Delta house for their "Pledge Dad Reveal Night." In the weeks leading up to this event, the 18-year-old freshman was repeatedly put in uncomfortable situations. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Santulli had been "ordered to clean the brothers’ rooms and bring food, alcohol and marijuana to them at all hours of the night," multiple times.

The young pledge was also forced to crawl into a trash can filled with broken glass, which resulted in an injury that required stitches. By the time the party rolled around, Santulli was mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. This might be why when he was handed an entire bottle of vodka by his pledge dad, he didn't hesitate to drink it. Santulli is now blind, unable to walk, and suffering from brain damage. Where is his pledge dad, Ryan Delanty, now? Here's what we know.

On May 10, 2024, Delanty plead guilty to hazing and supplying liquor to a minor. He agreed to "six months in jail for his involvement," per the Columbia Missourian. Once he completed his six months in prison, Delanty would spend six more months under house arrest. During the criminal proceedings, police seized Delanty's phone. They found text messages wherein the 22-year-old referred to Santulli as his "son" and said he was "dead."

After Santulli passed out at the party, he was moved to a couch where he slowly slid off about an hour later around midnight. Soon after that, Delanty and other members of the fraternity noticed that Santulli's skin was extremely pale and his lips were blue. They picked him up and took him to the hospital, but left him "in a car for medical personnel to find," reported the Columbia Missourian.

During his victim impact statement, Santulli's father Tom asked, "Who would give an 18-year-old a bottle of vodka and tell him to consume it?" He then added, "(Delanty) got him so intoxicated his heart stopped. If he genuinely cared, he would have stayed with Danny." And while Tom understood that an insidious code of silence prevented everyone from speaking up, he said that doing nothing was cowardly. "This tragedy,” he said, “was 100 percent preventable."

It was Delanty who was supposed to watch over Santulli that night and it was Delanty who failed him so miserably. When it was time for Santulli's mother to share her thoughts, she began by describing the absolute terror felt when she and her husband drove the seven hours to Missouri. "It was the longest car ride of my life," she said. "It was a mother’s worst nightmare."

Once the victim impact statements were read, Delanty's lawyer made a statement on behalf of her client. "I don’t want you to see Ryan as a monster,” she said, “but as a son, grandson, who made horrible mistakes that were reckless and dangerous. There but for the grace of God." It rings hollow in response to the heartfelt messages of love from Santulli's family.

She concluded by saying that for the rest of Delanty's life, he'll remember this whenever he is at an event. It's an absurd thing to say.