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.