Recordpub.com - KSU student 'critical' after beating: Akron men in Portage jail on charges of felonious assault after off-campus attack

By Dave O’Brien

Record-Courier staff writer

A Kent State University student is in critical condition at Akron City Hospital, and two Akron men are charged with savagely beating him during an unprovoked, off-campus altercation early Sunday.

Adrian A. Barker, 20, and Ronald G. Kelly, 21, remain in the Portage County jail on $75,000 cash bond each pending a preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. Friday in Portage County Municipal Court in Kent. Both are charged with one count each of felonious assault, a second-degree felony, and Barker also is charged with a single misdemeanor count of obstructing official business.

The victim is identified as Christopher M. Kernich, 23, a business student on the Kent campus and a native of Fairborn, near Dayton.

Kent Police Chief James Peach said the incident took place at 2:20 a.m. Sunday, after Barker, Kelly and a third man allegedly started a fight at an East Main Street fraternity house and were thrown out. As they pulled their vehicle out of a nearby parking lot they almost struck a group of KSU students, including Kernich, who were walking east on East Main Street.

Police interviewed witnesses, who said the vehicle with the three suspects stopped in a driveway in the 200 block of East Main Street. There, they waited for the KSU students to approach. Barker and Kelly then got out of the vehicle and allegedly assaulted three of the students, leaving Kernich with severe head injuries.

Initial 911 calls reported a male victim on the ground and unconscious. Responding officers found him lying on the tree lawn on the north side of East Main Street suffering from head injuries, according to Kent police. Kent police and firefighters responded shortly after the original emergency call. They found Kernich unconscious on the ground, and upon investigation detained and arrested Barker and Kelly.

Further charges are pending. Anyone who may have witnessed the incident or has any information regarding it is asked to call the Kent Police Department Detective Bureau at 330-673-7732.

According to the Dayton Daily News, Kernich is a 2005 graduate of Fairborn High School, where he played baseball, basketball and football. He caught 21 touchdowns in the 2004 season for the Skyhawks football team, according to unofficial Ohio High School Athletic Association records.

Kernich turned 23 on Nov. 12, and he had planned to attend the Bengals/Steelers game in Pittsburgh on Sunday, according to his online Twitter account.

76.	Posted by I_laff_at_everyone December 2, 2009
	Well lets see what we have here- 2 black guys, from shaker heights, college sophomores, one on the tennis team, the other a wrestler, hanging with a white guy, at a white frat party. Pretty much blows the hate crime theory out of the water. STUPID- yes. Followers of Farrakhan- I think not. These guys ruined their lives for what? Because somebody yelled at them for almost running them over. In the Cleveland news on Monday, 2 brothers were shot. For jawwing & yelling back and forth as they left a nightclub. I highly doubt the intention was to kill. Do not waste taxpayer money trying to prove a MURDER case. Plead this to what it is- Voluntary Manslaughter with some prison time.

75.	Posted by Kent Sheetz November 28, 2009
	There seems to be a concerted effort in comments on this and other websites to promote the idea that this senseless, tragic crime was a hate crime. None of the facts that have been published so far support that idea. Some of the same people who have been pushing the idea that it was a hate crime have also been pushing the idea that is linked to "black foot soldiers" who, supposedly, use a blog to urge violence against whites. If you happen to look at the blog, ask yourself, "Who created this, and why?" Ask yourself if such a vile, 21st century minstrel show isn't exactly the sort of thing that white supremacists might cook up in order to exploit fears about the assault in Kent (and similar senseless, tragic crimes) and further a Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi, or similar agenda of hate.

71.	Posted by Kent Sheetz November 22, 2009
	There seems to be a concerted effort in comments on this and other websites to promote the idea that this senseless, tragic crime was a hate crime. None of the facts that have been published thus far support that idea. Some of the same people who have been pushing the idea that it was a hate crime have also been pushing the idea that is linked to "black foot soldiers" who, supposedly, use a blog to urge violence against whites. If you happen to look at the blog, ask yourself, "Who created this, and why?" Ask yourself if such a vile, 21st century minstrel show isn't exactly the sort of thing that white supremacists might cook up in order to exploit fears about the assault in Kent (and similar senseless, tragic crimes) and further a Klan, Aryan Nations, or similar agenda.

68.	Posted by whydoicare November 22, 2009
	Here is the simple fact, 'people'(they are much closer to animals) such as these, have no place in civil society. They should be ostracized at an early age and removed from society for the protection of all those around them. We can wax that they came from 'urban' areas, and that they were 'poor' and that never had the same opportunities as the young man they killed; and to the people who say this as some mitigating factor to this violence, I say RUBISH. There is a world of poor, urban people who would never think of doing this. These pieces of sh*t are the product of a 'culture' that celebrates violence, laziness and stupidity. They come from a culture that is devoid of responsibility and work. They, and their like, are a drain on our nation. They walk around with a chip on their shoulder, daring anyone to knock it off and when it comes time to pay for their crimes, they will blame the 'racist society' in which they live as the reason for their barbaric actions. I say, let these men go...have the court make a public announcement of when and where they will be released. I'm sure justice would be metered to these scum. But instead, the hard working tax paying citizens of Portage County will pay to feed, cloth, house and provide medical care to these human scum. While the victim's family will bury a bright young man with all the promise the world had to offer him, until some animals choose to show the world who and what they really are... May they burn in hell and may their families feel shame for the rest of their lives for bringing such worthless scum into this world.