By Dave O’Brien
Record-Courier staff writer
Two men accused of savagely beating a Kent State University student, leaving him in critical condition in an Akron hospital, were indicted Thursday on charges of felonious assault.
Adrian A. Barker, 21, and Ronald G. Kelly, 20, are charged with one count each of felonious assault, a second-degree felony, in the early Sunday morning beating of Christopher M. Kernich, 23, a business major from Fairborn.
Barker also was indicted on one count of obstructing official business, a fifth-degree felony, for allegedly hindering the Kent Police Department’s investigation.
The incident took place in the area of East Main and South Depeyster streets in Kent. Kernich was later transported to Akron City Hospital, where he remains in critical condition.
Cleveland attorneys Dennis N. Loconti and Helen Forbes Fields told Portage County Municipal Court Judge John Plough Friday that Barker was being arraigned the same day on the indictment in Portage County Common Pleas Judge John Enlow’s courtroom in Ravenna. Barker was scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Plough’s Kent courtroom Friday morning.
Kelly’s attorney, Gregory Robey of Cleveland, filed a motion Friday asking Enlow to reduce Kelly’s $75,000 cash bond.
According to Robey’s filing — which seeks to lower the bond to $20,000 cash or 10 percent thereof — Kelly is a sophomore at the University of Akron, lives with his grandparents in Shaker Heights and is neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk.
Robey was one of the attorneys who, in April 2007, helped acquit Randy Resh of the 1989 murder of Connie Nardi in Portage County.
Barker’s pre-trial hearing has been set for Jan. 29. A trial is set for Feb. 1. His case also has been assigned to Enlow’s court. No further court dates have been set in Kelly’s case, according to court records.