ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 18, 1997 TAG: 9703180064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA THE ROANOKE TIMES
Last summer's brawl left a Va. Tech track member with a broken collarbone and charges against several football players.
A Montgomery County Circuit Court judge dismissed a felony charge of attempted malicious wounding against the second Virginia Tech football player taken to court in connection with a brawl last summer that left a track athlete with a broken collarbone.
Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs said one witness' account of the mob that attacked the victim was "chilling," but that the evidence in the case did not support the conviction of Angelo Harrison.
Harrison, a wide receiver, appeared ecstatic about the court's ruling as he exchanged handshakes and hugs with supporters. He would not comment about the ruling, however.
Tech suspended Harrison for the season after the Nov.6 indictment. Harrison was the only one of seven players, and one former player, charged with a felony in the brawl after Hilliard Sumner III accused Harrison of breaking his collarbone with a cane.
Harrison was the second Tech football player to have a charge dismissed in the case.
A misdemeanor assault and battery charge lodged against former tailback Greg Melvin was dismissed at the request of the commonwealth's attorney Jan. 27. The state admitted Sumner could not identify Melvin as one of the players who hit him Aug. 31. In fact, Sumner said he never told police that Melvin hit him but that Melvin had hit his friend.
In court Monday, however, Blacksburg Detective D.W. Compton read from his notes that Sumner told him three times that Melvin was among the men who hit him during the fight that began on College Avenue and ended on Draper Road.
Marc Long, Harrison's attorney, used the seemingly conflicting statements to challenge the veracity of Sumner's testimony. After the ruling, Long called the charge against his client "a case of mistaken identity."
Testimony from witnesses on both sides seemed to confirm several facts. Sumner helped his friend, Jonathan Nelson, up from the street after Nelson got into an argument with several football players that escalated into a fight. Soon afterward a crowd chased Sumner about a block, tackled him, hit and kicked him until others broke up the brawl.
Conflicting testimony, however, put into question who took a cane from Nelson and who, if anyone, hit Sumner with the cane.
Nelson testified that Harrison took the cane from where it hung in his back pocket and ran with a crowd down College Avenue. Sumner also identified Harrison as the one who hit him with the cane.
Defense witness and football player Tyron Edmond testified he took the cane from Nelson and never came within more than 15 feet of the group of people beating Sumner. Edmond also was charged in the brawl and is set to be tried next week for assault and battery.
Harrison also testified that Edmond had the cane and that he never touched it.
Two witnesses for the state, neither associated with Tech athletes, said they saw someone swinging the cane during the brawl, though they weren't certain it was striking Sumner.
Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith had little to say about the court's ruling. He did say the outcome of Harrison's case will have no bearing on the remaining cases.
Long said he felt the truth came out in court Monday and the truth is that no one truly knows what happened the night of the fight.
Shortly after the hearing, Sumner got into a verbal altercation with Harrison. Sumner's friends pulled him away, and he left.
Because Sumner and several other witnesses for the state left the courthouse and did not return, the trial against another football player was continued until Friday. Michael Hawkes was to be tried Monday for assault and battery of Sumner. Authorities allege that Hawkes was the player who tackled Sumner on Draper Road.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB