Prosecutors played surveillance video of the beating on Oct. 30 that left a man with head injuries
Corey Ford
Katie Roupe/ Observer-Reporter Jonathan Barlow
Katie Roupe/ Observer-Reporter D'Andre Dunkley
Katie Roupe/ Observer-Reporter Rodney Gillin
Katie Roupe/ Observer-Reporter Shelby Wilkerson
Katie Roupe/ Observer-Reporter James Williamson
The six California University of Pennsylvania football players accused of severely beating a man in the borough last month will stand trial following a two-hour preliminary hearing that included grainy surveillance video of the fight and contradictory testimony about what happened.
Corey Ford, 22, of Harrisburg, waived his charges to court while lawyers for the other five men contested them in the hearing before District Judge Joshua Kanalis that stretched late into Monday afternoon.
In addition to Ford, James Williamson, 20, of Parkville, Md.; Jonathan Barlow, 21, of Pittsburgh; Rodney Gillin, 20, of Reading; D’Andre Dunkley, 19, of Philadelphia; and Shelby Wilkerson, 20, of Harrisburg, are accused of beating and stomping 30-year-old Lewis Campbell III of West Chester during a confrontation on Wood Street in the early hours of Oct. 30.
Campbell, who spent eight days at Allegheny General Hospital with severe head injuries, traveled to the district judge’s office but was sequestered from the preliminary hearing and did not testify.
Kanalis ruled there was enough evidence against all of the defendants but not before lawyers for each of them tried to raise doubts about witness testimony by Campbell’s girlfriend, Shareese Asparagus, and his roommate, Anthony Martin.
Asparagus testified she was walking with Campbell and Martin to a new tattoo parlor on Wood Street when Ford, who was sitting in a parked car with his teammates, made a flirtatious comment to her.
“I thought it was derogatory,” Asparagus said.
She said Campbell immediately responded “Hi, to you, too.” Asparagus said Ford snapped back that he “wasn’t (expletive) talking to you. I’m talking to her.” That prompted Ford and Campbell to approach each other, both raising their fists in an attempt to fight, Asparagus said.
Several players got out of the parked car – the exact number is not clear – and walked up to Campbell, who then took off his winter coat as Asparagus tried several times, unsuccessfully, to pull him back from the confrontation.
“It just began to be completely chaotic,” Asparagus said. “Someone just pushed him over, and then they all stomped him out.”
Surveillance video of the fight, which was taken from inside a nearby flower shop, showed several people surrounding Campbell as he threw one punch before getting knocked to the ground and kicked and stomped several times before the men left in Dunkley’s white car.
The video being played in the courtroom made for a surreal scene with four of the six defendants, their lawyers and at least two dozen supporters – some even standing on chairs to get a view – crowded around the judge’s small computer monitor watching the grainy black and white video. Another video, shot using a Cal U. student’s cellphone, shows the end of the beating with one of the accused shouting “football team on deck!”
But the videos also raise questions about who exactly was involved in the fight and what role they played in the beating. Testimony from Asparagus and Martin, who also witnessed the fight, contradicted each other at times about who punched or kicked Campbell and when.
Asparagus said each of the defendants “got their hit in,” but she was unable to identify specific portions of the fight. Martin was clearer with his testimony, saying a man with yellow boots “tried to crush (Campbell’s) head in” and Barlow threw a punch and kick. He identified others as being involved, but did not see Gillin strike Campbell.
“There were so many things going on, I’m not even certain (what happened) anymore,” Martin said.
And university police Detective Michael Hampe testified Wilkerson told investigators the day after the beating he threw a punch in self-defense because they feared for their lives after Campbell said he would “kill you” and reached for something in his coat pocket. Investigators only found a cellphone and cigarettes in his coat.
“I punched him in the face because I felt lives were in danger at this point,” Wilkerson told investigators.
That opened a floodgate of questions from each lawyer who claimed neither the witness testimony nor the surveillance video painted a clear picture of what exactly happened.
“We heard some very interesting testimony that was contradictory,” said attorney David Shrager, who is representing Dunkley. “It shows how confused people are during these melees. No one wants to admit it, but no one’s sure what happened.”
Attorney Scott Lautner, who is representing Williamson, said his client left his cellphone behind at the scene and went to Martin’s apartment after the fight when one of them picked it up and took it home. He located it using a tracking app and neither Martin nor Asparagus recognized him during the assault on Campbell. Neither testified to him striking any blows.
“I don’t know if I would call it conflicting,” Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone said of the testimony after the hearing. “You’re talking about a spectrum of events. This is a highly charged event.”
The six men now face trial on charges of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, harassment and criminal conspiracy. Kanalis reduced the bond for Barlow and Gillin to a $50,000 percentage bond following the hearing, making it identical to the others who previous petitioned the courts for a lower bond. Williamson, Dunkley and Wilkerson were already free on bond. Ford remains jailed while awaiting sentencing next month in Washington, D.C., after pleading guilty to striking a bicyclist with his car while intoxicated.