***MEDIA ADVISORY***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 5, 2015

ELKHART JURY CONVICTS MAN OF BEATING ROOMATE'S BOYFRIEND WITH BASEBALL BAT

Media Contact: Curtis T. Hill, Jr. (574) 296-1888

Defendant, Jerry Ward, Jr., was charged with Battery by Means of a Deadly Weapon, a Level 5 felony, on March 18, 2015, after an incident in his home in Elkhart County on March 14, 2015, that sent a man to the hospital with a head laceration requiring staples.

The victim testified at trial that he had gone over to the residence in the early evening to pick up a vacuum cleaner and visit with his then-girlfriend and her 5-year-old daughter who were also living at the apartment. A verbal argument ensued with Jerry Ward Jr. over a cell phone at which time Ward left the area and returned moments later with an aluminum baseball bat. The victim stated that when he tried to leave the residence and walked past Ward, he was cracked in the left side of the head with the bat. He fell to his hands and knees while Ward proceeded to beat him about his body until someone was able to pull him off of the victim.

The victim’s testimony was corroborated by a call to 911, which was played for the jury. In it, the victim’s girlfriend is heard screaming for an ambulance and telling the operator that the Ward beat the victim with a baseball bat.

Trial commenced on September 29, 2015, and the twelve person jury returned a verdict of guilty on October 1, 2015. Sentencing is scheduled for November 12, 2015, at 1:00 p.m.

This case was tried by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kathleen Gring in Elkhart Superior Court 1 in front of Magistrate Dean Burton.

***

“Under Indiana law, all persons arrested for a criminal offense are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”