DATE: Tuesday, March 25, 1997               TAG: 9703250502

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LISA K. GARCIA, THE ROANOKE TIMES 
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG, VA.               LENGTH:   59 lines

TECH PLAYER CONVICTED; 2 DAYS IN JAIL EDMOND IS THE FIRST TO BE FOUND GUILTY IN BEATING OF TRACK ATHLETE SUMNER.

The third Virginia Tech football player tried in connection with a brawl last summer on Monday became the first to be found guilty of assaulting another student.

Tyron Edmond, a sophomore linebacker, was among eight current and former football players indicted in early November on charges of assaulting two Tech students, one of whom suffered a broken collarbone.

Edmond will serve two days in jail for the misdemeanor assault-and-battery conviction for hitting Jonathan Nelson with his fist. The rest of his 30-day sentence was suspended.

University athletic officials suspended Edmond for one game last season because of the charge.

A policy announced by university officials on Feb. 24 states that all athletes convicted of misdemeanor charges will face a review process directed by athletic director Dave Braine. Punishment will range from a warning to dismissal from the team.

Braine could not be reached Monday for comment about Edmond's status with the team.

Nelson said he was attacked by 12 to 15 people outside Squires Student Center around 2 a.m. Aug. 31. After several people hit him, including a punch to his head from Edmond, he landed on the ground, Nelson said. When a friend, track athlete Hilliard Sumner III, helped him up from the street, the mob turned on Sumner.

Sumner was chased to Draper Road, where several people hit, kicked and beat him with a cane, according to several witnesses. He was treated for a broken collarbone and minor injuries.

``These cases have all been difficult and been difficult primarily because the evidence has been one or two witnesses for the commonwealth (vs.) usually a half-dozen for the defense,'' Montgomery Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith said. ``In this case, the judge had a clearer picture of the facts because there were only two witnesses for the defense, and a confession as well.''

Police interviewed more than 75 people before the indictments were issued nine weeks after the incident. Four people have been brought to court in connection with the brawl.

Former football player Greg Melvin never was tried for misdemeanor assault and battery because Sumner said Melvin had been wrongly accused. A felony charge of attempted malicious wounding against wide receiver Angelo Harrison was dismissed, as was a misdemeanor assault-and-battery charge against linebacker Michael Hawkes. In those two cases, the judge said the evidence presented was filled with discrepancies and created reasonable doubt.

Dutton Olinger, Edmond's attorney, said Edmond was a ``good Samaritan'' who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

``He was only trying to keep Jonathan Nelson from falling into him . . . from hurting him or (from Nelson hurting) himself,'' Olinger said.

Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs said there was no doubt Edmond was one of the people who hit Nelson.

The trial of Brian Edmonds, the starting fullback last fall, was postponed because his attorney was ill. No new date has been set. KEYWORDS: ASSAULT TRIAL CONVICTION

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