Update on this story on Wednesday, April 28, 2010Cincinnati Police now say they have identified three soldiers as the remaining suspects in the vicious attack on a homeless man in Spring Grove Village. The man told police four men beat him with metal pipes and baseball bats as he slept along Mitchell Avenue and I-75 in the early morning hours of April 10th.
Detectives say 24 year old Michael Hesson, Private Riley Feller, and two unidentified soldiers were behind the attack. Hesson was arrested yesterday, appeared in court this morning, and is held on $5000 cash bond.
Authorities say military police at Fort Knox, Ky turned over 24-year-old Riley Feller to the Hardin County, Ky., Sheriff's office on Tuesday. Feller was being held on a fugitive charge at the county jail. A deputy says he will be arraigned Wednesday, pending extradition to Ohio.
Police say the four describe themselves as skinheads and they planned the attack on John Johnson. They were in Cincinnati on leave to visit one of their girlfriends when they attack happened. Cincinnati Detective Kip Dunagan told Local 12, "At one point, one of the suspects said, 'Let's go mess somebody up'. He used another word besides 'mess' but the other suspects said, 'That sounds like a good idea.' They got into a vehicle and they went specifically looking for a bum, as they call it."
Johnson, says the four men told him to get a job and chased him down as he tried to run away. Johnson suffered bruises all over his body and needed 18 stitches to his head.
