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BUCYRUS―The only eyewitness to the fatal beating of Michael “Mikey” Benedict testified Wednesday in the Crawford County Common Pleas Court. Chris Kegley, who resided on Union Street in Crestline, told the jury his bedroom window was open the night of the assault on Benedict.

 

Kegley told the jury he was awake at the time of the incident only because his son walked into his bedroom after a bad dream and woke him up.

Kegley said he tried to go back to sleep in his second-floor bedroom, but he heard two males arguing. He took the screen out of his window and turned his head toward the noise. He told the jury he saw two men squaring off to fight. Kegley described it as a drunken fight.

Not knowing where his cell phone was, Kegley ran downstairs to his landline and made his first call to 911.

Kegley is heard on the call describing a man beaten “half to death” lying in the road between Wiley and Clink streets.

In gruesome detail, Kegley told 911 they were kicking him in the head. He told the dispatcher a female was there as well. She had been standing a ways off. Kegley said he saw a “chunky” female to the left of the two men fighting with Benedict. She was on the opposite side of the street. Kegley identified Jackie Montgomery as the woman he saw. He told the court when he saw Kegley approaching Benedict; he thought she was coming to help him. But instead, she called him a Mother F#@&%@ and kicked him upside his head. Kegley stepped off the witness stand at the state’s request to demonstrate what he saw and heard.

On a second 911 call, Kegley yells at the defendants: “Hey! That’s enough.” Kegley could hear Benedict making a gurgling sound. He thought they may have already killed him. Kelley told the jury:

“When they came back a second time, one of them mounted the already incapacitated victim and continued to beat him. It was a full-on UFC mounting style. They punched him about 30 times and then he got up and the two males started kicking him in the head again stomping him into the pavement. The female did not help at all.” Kegley said.

On cross-examination, defense attorney James Mayer confirmed that while Kegley did not realize it at the time of the assault, he was familiar with Tim and Jackie Montgomery. They had rented some property from him in the past.

Mayer focused his attention on a three-page, handwritten statement Kegley gave to Police on that Sunday. Mayer asked Kegley if he had consumed alcohol or any substance. Kelley said no. Mayer pointed out that Kegley did not write down the obscenity Jackie slurred as she kicked him. Kelley likened the two separate incidents to rounds of boxing. He told the jury Benedict was out after he received 10-12 kicks and stomps to the head. He said Jackie was further away, “screaming obscenities and inciting a riot.”

Mayer confronted Kegley about why he didn’t include his client’s language in his voluntary statement to the Police.

Kelley said so much was happening that he tried to condense the number of pages he wrote. But he told the jury he saw Montgomery and knew what she said.

Judge Sean Leuthold denied Mayer’s request for Kegley to demonstrate a full UFC mounting style for the jury.

“Getting down for a mount is not exactly a comfortable position, so I’m not going to require him to do it.” Judge Leuthold said.

In other court business, one male juror who became ill had to be replaced by a male alternate.

Testimony resumes Thursday.