A second student death at Rider

PRINCETON - Justin Warfield, a freshman at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, knew exactly what he wanted to do in life: sing and compose music.

"He had a wonderful voice. He had a lot of potential," said Ian Pomerantz, a senior voice major at the school.

That bright future was cut short yesterday when Warfield, 18, of Columbia, Md., was pronounced dead at University Medical Center in Princeton after what appeared to be a night of drinking and drugs.

Casey DeBlasio, a Mercer County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman, said investigators determined that Warfield had used heroin sometime Tuesday night and that the drug contributed to his death, the Associated Press reported. However, she said it was not yet clear whether he died from an overdose.

The death was the second for Rider this year. In March, a Rider freshman drank himself to death at a fraternity party, prompting criminal charges against two university administrators and three students and a university task force that developed new alcohol penalties, education and treatment.

Though charges against the administrators were recently dropped, the case called attention to universities' responsibility in controlling student alcohol abuse.

Yesterday, university spokesman Daniel Higgins would not answer questions about the school's alcohol policies.

Warfield, who was known as a musical prodigy at his high school, was found unconscious at an off-campus apartment after Princeton Borough police responded to a 911 call at 5 a.m.

Paramedics performed CPR and transported Warfield to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6 a.m.

Warfield appeared under the influence of drugs and alcohol when he was taken by friends to another friend's apartment at 11:30 p.m., according to a statement from the prosecutor.

A few hours later, the friends noticed Warfield was not breathing, began CPR and called 911, the statement says.

Warfield, who graduated from Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, had a reputation as a talented singer and composer. In high school, he wasn't a partier, friends said.

"He looked down on it a lot. He always said he hated it," said Matt Higgins, 17, who was in an alternative rock garage band with Warfield called The Getaways.

"It was against his values," said another bandmate, Michael Altner, 16.

The two, who are both still in high school, said school guidance counselors told them about their friend's death.

Warfield could play "everything and anything," including cello, piano, guitar and drums, most of which he taught himself, Altner said. He also sang in the school choir and composed a piece that was sung by the school's Madrigals.

"He really was a musical genius," Altner said.

Warfield studied voice at the prestigious Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore and had sung with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, according to his friends.

Walter Bentsen, 17, who sang with Warfield in the Madrigals, remembers how Warfield taught him and another student how to read music, a requirement for the group.

"He was really patient. He broke everything down for us," Bentsen said.

"He was definitely one of the most talented guys in our high school," said Bentsen, who is a freshman at Queens University in Charlotte, N.C.

Friends said Warfield really liked Westminster, where he majored in musical composition. It seemed like he had finally recovered from a car accident a few years ago that killed his friend, who was driving, and severely injured Warfield.

Yesterday, police escorted two students into and out of the orange stucco apartment building where Warfield was found. The students said they attended the music school, a short walk from the modest neighborhood where trees had begun to shed their leaves.

Students gathering in Westminster's playhouse for a rehearsal for a program at Carnegie Hall were told of their schoolmate's death yesterday morning.

The reaction was "shock, disbelief," said Pomerantz, the Westminster senior.

The piece they were rehearsing, Mahler's Second Symphony, also known as the "Resurrection," which deals with death and resurrection, "became about him," he said.

Pomerantz said drinking was not a big problem at Westminster, where most students were goal-oriented.

Warfield, he said, "had a definite direction and he knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to compose and he wanted to sing."

The senior carried a yellow-and-pink rose that he planned to lay in front of Ithaca Hall, the dorm where Warfield lived.

"He seemed very happy," he said. "I've never seen him not smiling."