“The death … is nothing short of an American tragedy,” said State Attorney Lawson Lamar. “No one should have expected that his college experience would include being pummeled to death.”

Eleven defendants were charged with hazing resulting in death, a felony, and misdemeanor offenses that all together could bring nearly six years in prison. Two others face misdemeanor charges.

It was not immediately clear whether those charged were all students or whether they included faculty members or others involved in the road trip.

Their names were being withheld until all of them were arrested. By Wednesday afternoon, two were in custody.

Champion had bruises on his chest, arms, shoulder and back and died of internal bleeding, Lamar said. Witnesses told emergency dispatchers that the drum major was vomiting before he was found unresponsive aboard the bus.

The prosecutor gave no motive for the beating. But witnesses said Champion might have been targeted because he opposed the routine hazing that went on in the marching band or because he was gay, according his family’s attorney.

Legal experts had predicted more serious charges, such as manslaughter or second-degree murder.

Champion’s mother, Pam, said she was glad charges were brought but disappointed they weren’t more severe. “I thought it should send a harsher message,” she said.

Lamar said prosecutors didn’t have the evidence to bring more serious charges.

“The testimony obtained to date does not support a charge of murder, in that it does not contain the elements of murder,” he said. “We can prove participation in hazing and a death. We do not have a blow or a shot or a knife thrust that killed Mr. Champion. It is an aggregation of things which exactly fit the Florida statute as written by the Legislature.”

Hazing in Florida was upgraded to a felony in 2005 following the death of a University of Miami student four years earlier. Chad Meredith was drunk and died trying to swim across a lake at the behest of his fraternity brothers. No charges were filed, but a civil jury ordered the fraternity to pay Meredith’s parents $12 million.

Champion’s death has jeopardized the future of FAMU’s legendary marching band, which has performed at the Grammys, presidential inaugurations and Super Bowls and represented the U.S. in Paris at the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. FAMU, based in Tallahassee, has suspended the band and set up a task force on curtailing hazing.

Hazing has long been practiced in marching bands, particularly at historically black colleges like FAMU in the South, where the band is often as revered as the football team and members are campus celebrities.

Much of the hazing reported at FAMU has involved students trying to get into certain cliques within the band, and it has typically included punching, slapping and paddling.

Solomon Badger, chairman of the FAMU board of trustees, said the school is doing everything it can to eradicate hazing. He said of the charges: “I hope this wraps its arm around everything we have been plagued with the last six months.”

Richard Sigal, a retired sociology professor at the County College of Morris in Randolph, N.J., who holds anti-hazing workshops at schools, said he could not recall another hazing case with so many defendants. Most cases don’t result in criminal charges, and those that do typically end in plea bargains with little or no jail time, Sigal said.

Champion’s parents have sued the bus company owner, claiming the driver stood guard outside while the hazing took place. The company said the driver was helping band members with their equipment.

The lawsuit described two types of hazing that took place on the bus.

In one ritual, students ran from the front of the bus to the back while other band members slapped, kicked and hit them. A student who fell was stomped and dragged to the front to run again.

In a ritual known as “the hot seat,” a pillowcase was placed over the student’s nose and mouth and he or she was forced to answer questions. If the student gave the correct answer, the pillowcase was removed briefly; a student who supplied a wrong answer was given another question without a chance to take a breath, the lawsuit said.

In a separate incident at FAMU, three people were charged with severely beating a woman’s legs with their fists and a metal ruler last fall to initiate her into a clique of band members from Georgia. The woman suffered a broken thigh.

Also, four band members were arrested earlier this year and charged with hazing for allegedly punching, slapping and paddling five students from the clarinet section.

On Tuesday, a lawyer for two FAMU music professors who allegedly were present during a hazing of band members in 2010 said they have been forced out.

Former drum major Timothy Barber said the charges could help stop hazing at FAMU. “It kind of strikes a level of fear in people, that this hasn’t stopped and it’s not going to be tolerated,” he said.

In some other major hazing cases around the country, four former students at California Polytechnic State University pleaded no contest and were sentenced to about a month in jail in 2010 in the drinking death of a fraternity pledge.

In 2005, four fraternity members at California State University pleaded guilty in the death of a student who was forced to drink large amounts of water during an initiation. The most serious charge was involuntary manslaughter, resulting in a one-year sentence for one member. Two others pleaded guilty to accessory to manslaughter and got six months.

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Associated Press writer Kyle Hightower in Orlando contributed to this report.

Champion was severely beaten by band members in November and had with bruises on his chest, arms, shoulder and back, authorities said. Witnesses told emergency dispatchers Champion was vomiting before he was found unresponsive aboard the bus.

State Attorney Lawson Lamar said 11 of the 13 people will face a hazing resulting death charge, a third-degree felony. If convicted, they could face up to nearly six years in prison. The other two people will face a misdemeanor charges.

The names of those charged will not be released until they are all arrested, Lamar said. It was also not immediately clear whether they were all band members.

Legal experts had predicted prosecutors may file more serious charges like manslaughter and second-degree murder. The Champion family attorney, Christopher Chestnut, said they were disappointed.

“They had hoped for more serious charges. They were hoping for a stronger message. He was beaten to death,” he said.

Prosecutors, however, didn’t think they had enough evidence.

“The testimony obtained to date does not support a charge of murder, in that it does not contain the elements of murder,” Lamar said. “We can prove participation in hazing and a death. We do not have a blow or a shot or a knife thrust that killed Mr. Champion. It is an aggregation of things which exactly fit the Florida statute as written by the Legislature.”

Florida’s hazing law was passed in 2005 following the death of University of Miami student Chad Meredith four years earlier. Meredith was drunk and died trying to swim across a lake at the behest of fraternity brothers. No criminal charges were filed in his case, but a civil jury ordered the fraternity Kappa Sigma to pay Meredith’s parents $12 million.

Champion’s death has jeopardized the future of FAMU’s legendary marching band, which has performed at the Grammys, presidential inaugurations, Super Bowls and even represented the U.S. in Paris at the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution.

Hazing has long been a problem at fraternities and sororities, and in marching bands, particularly at historically black colleges in the South, where a spot in the band is coveted and revered as much as the sports teams. On HBCU campuses, band members are often given perks and treated like celebrities.

Richard Sigal, who holds anti-hazing workshops at schools, said most cases don’t end up with criminal charges. And those that do, typically end in plea deals with little or no jail time.

“I don’t have any recollection of that many defendants in a case,” Sigal, a retired sociology professor at the County College of Morris in Randolph, N.J. “I’m not saying it never happened, but I have no memory of such a large number of defendants in a case.”

Much of the hazing reported at Florida A&M has involved students trying to get into certain groups within the band. Those who don’t make a group were often ostracized.

Champion’s parents have sued the bus company owner, claiming in a lawsuit that the bus driver stood guard outside the bus while the hazing took place. The bus company owner initially said the bus driver was helping other band members with their equipment when the hazing took place.

Witnesses in the Champion case have told his parents he might have been targeted because he opposed the hazing, the parents’ attorney has said. It has also been suggested to them that Champion was targeted because he was gay and a candidate for chief drum major.

The lawsuit described two types of hazing that took place on the bus. During the first, pledges of a band clique known as “Bus C” ran from the front to the back of the bus while other band members slapped, kicked and hit them. A pledge who fell was stomped and dragged to the front of the bus to run again.

In a ritual known as “the hot seat,” a pillow case was placed over the pledge’s nose and mouth while the pledge was forced to answer questions. If a pledge got a right answer, the pillow case was removed briefly; a pledge with a wrong answer was given another question without a chance to take a breath, the lawsuit said.

FAMU has suspended the band and launched a task force to recommend steps it could take to curtail hazing.

Solomon Badger, chairman of the Florida A&M board of trustees, said the school is doing everything it can to eradicate hazing.

“I hope this wraps its arm around everything we have been plagued with the last six months,” Badger said.

In a separate incident at FAMU, three people were charged after alleged hazing ceremonies Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. That’s when Bria Shante Hunter said her legs were beaten with fists and a metal ruler to initiate her into the “Red Dawg Order,” a band clique for students who hail from Georgia.

Four band members were also arrested earlier this year and charged with hazing in the alleged beatings of five pledges to a marching band club known as the Clones, a group within the band’s clarinet section, a police report said.

The hazing took place in “three or four initiation meetings” that began around Sept. 1 in a house about a mile from campus. Five pledges were lined up in order of their height and “forced to exercise, play music, and were either punched, prepped (slapped with both hands on back) and/or paddled,” police said.

During the initiations, pledges were forced to give money and were pressured to keep exercising “even after exhaustion.”

On Tuesday, a lawyer for two FAMU music professors who allegedly were present during an unrelated hazing of band fraternity pledges in early 2010 said they have been forced out.

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Associated Press writer Kyle Hightower in Orlando contributed to this report.

O’Mara claimed the family was not trying to be deceptive, but Florida Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester said he wanted to know more about the money. O’Mara doesn’t think the judge will change Zimmerman’s bond in light of the new information.

Zimmerman was released from jail earlier this week, and has gone into hiding ever since over concerns about his safety. He is accused of second-degree murder for the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager. Zimmerman wasn’t charged for more than six weeks, setting off nationwide protests. He claims self-defense.

Zimmerman’s father is white and his mother is from Peru.

An attorney for Martin’s family said the teenager’s parents were “offended” Zimmerman did not tell the judge about the money.

“This is a bombshell that was dropped,” Benjamin Crump said.

O’Mara said he learned about the money this week, after Zimmerman’s release. The family used $5,000 from the website as well as a second mortgage on their home to bail out Zimmerman, O’Mara said. Zimmerman has also used some of the money for living expenses.

The website has been taken down, but O’Mara said the defense is starting two others.

Also Friday, Lester refused the prosecution’s request to issue a gag order on those involved in the murder trial. He said he would not stop Zimmerman’s attorneys from talking to the media.

“This case is the most significant media event in the country, maybe in the world. We can’t be absolutely mute about these matters,” O’Mara said.

“It was taken down at Mark’s request and he will not have any future online presence unless authorized in advance by Mark,” Woods said in an email.

O’Mara has hinted that he will ask Zimmerman to be declared indigent, which would allow taxpayers to pay for his legal bills. Any income from the website would make that process more difficult.

The website was created almost two weeks ago by Zimmerman’s family to thank his supporters and to receive donations from anyone who wanted to help with his legal defense.

The 44-day delay in Zimmerman’s arrest spurred protests nationwide and inspired a national debate about racial profiling, equal justice under the law and Florida’s self-defense law.

Zimmerman went into hiding earlier this week after he was released from jail on a $150,000 bond.

Zimmerman, 28, is pleading not guilty and says he acted in self-defense.

Hearings for both requests have not immediately been scheduled. If a new judge is assigned to the case, Zimmerman’s bail hearing — originally scheduled for Friday — could be pushed back.

Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler last week revealed the potential conflict in the case that relates to her husband, who works with Orlando attorney Mark NeJame.

NeJame was first approached by Zimmerman’s family to represent the neighborhood watch volunteer. But the attorney, who also is serving as a CNN legal analyst in the case, declined and referred them to O’Mara.

“What I don’t want to happen is to wait a month or two, and then we find out that what we thought is a potential conflict is an actual conflict,” O’Mara told reporters outside the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center.

Florida court officials released a statement Monday afternoon confirming that O’Mara’s request had been filed and “would be ruled on in the appropriate manner.”

Regarding the challenge by the media groups, records such as full police reports, autopsy reports and transcripts of witness interviews are normally public under Florida law.

Zimmerman’s case doesn’t meet the standards that are typically used to create an exemption to those laws, according to the motion filed by the news organizations.

Those standards allow the sealing of records if their public release would create an imminent threat to the administration of justice, if there are no alternatives for protecting a defendant’s right to a fair trial and if closing the records protects the rights of the person being tried.

“The closure order and the manner in which it was entered are contrary to law,” the media organizations said in the motion.

A spokeswoman for the special prosecutor in the case said her office was reviewing the media motion but had no immediate comment. O’Mara didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment on Monday.

The delay in an arrest for almost a month and a half inspired protests nationwide.

Yet special prosecutor Angela Corey’s decision to file a charge against Zimmerman was not the result of public outcry, Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Monday.

“I don’t think Angela gets influenced by things other than what the facts are,” he said. “She’s somebody that cares about victims, she wants due process for everybody involved, she wants to get the facts out. She makes decisions based on the facts and on what’s right.”