Trials, hearings rescheduled in Kernich case

Regina Garcia Cano

The trials of the men accused of beating Christopher Kernich, a Kent State student, have been rescheduled.

The trials of the men accused of beating Christopher Kernich, a Kent State student, have been rescheduled.

Ronald Kelly, 20, is scheduled to go on trial May 4 in Judge John Enlow’s courtroom of the Portage County Common Pleas Court. His following hearings are April 9 and May 3.

In the same court, Adrian A. Barker, 21, will face trial April 13. Barker’s immediate hearing is Jan. 28, according to the court’s Web site. Another hearing is set for March 10.

Barker and Kelly, both from Shaker Heights, are being accused of felonious assault.

On Jan. 13, Kelly’s attorney, Gregory Robey, filed a motion to change the venue for his client’s trial due to the widespread media coverage of the case, according to a motion in the Portage County Common Pleas Court.

In the 26-page document, Robey explained, “The vast exposure within the community to this information has unfairly prejudiced the Defendant and substantially endangered his rights under both the Constitutions of the United States and Ohio to receive a fair and impartial jury of his peers.”

A third man also involved in the Nov. 15 assault, Glenn P. Jefferson, 21, of Mentor, is free on bond on felony charges of obstructing justice. His trial is Feb. 9. Judge Laurie Pittman’s courtroom of the Portage County Common Pleas Court is processing Jefferson’s case.

Kernich died Nov. 21, a week after the alleged assault.