WKU football players plead guilty in Pike house incident

WKU football players do high-knee drills before going through their plays during practice on Tuesday at L.T. Smith Stadium. 

Evan Heichelbech

Update: This story was updated at 1:37 p.m. to add information about Andrew O’Bryan, Jachour H. Pearson and Christopher R. Johnson, three other players who were also indicted in June. 

Three WKU football players and one former player pleaded guilty earlier this morning to charges resulting from the March 5 brawl at the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house, WBKO reported.

Quinton A. Baker, 19, Xavier D. Lane, 20, Tyler Obee, 18 and ex-WKU player Cecil C. Stallings, 20 will be placed on a two-year conditional discharge after a felony charge was reduced to second degree wanton endangerment by complicity and fourth degree assault under extreme emotional disturbance, WBKO reported.

The four players are ordered to pay $7,885 to the victim, Jerald Armfield, to cover his medical expenses. They will also have to complete 30 hours of community service.

On June 5, Baker, Lane, Obee, and Stallings were each charged with complicity to first degree wanton endangerment, fourth degree complicity to assault and third degree criminal trespass. The criminal trespass charge was dropped. At the time, they pleaded not guilty. 

Three others were also indicted by a Warren County grand jury in June. Andrew O’Bryan, 19, was charged with menacing and third-degree criminal trespass. Jachour H. Pearson, 19 and Christopher R. Johnson, 21 were both charged with third-degree criminal trespass.

O’Bryan has since transferred to Eastern Kentucky University. 

Pearson and Johnson have a hearing scheduled on Aug. 22 at 9 a.m., Warren Circuit Court clerk, Brandi Duvall, told the Herald. 

At WKU’s annual football media day on Aug. 5, head coach Mike Sanford said that the team would continue handling the punishments internally.  He added that games would be missed as a result of the suspensions to the players. 

“Suspending somebody from spring ball and then playing them in the opener … that doesn’t really do anything for you,” Sanford said.

{{tncms-inline account=”JstoryDailyNews” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Four WKU football players plead guilty in Pike house brawl case this morning.</p>— Justin Story (@JstoryDailyNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/JstoryDailyNews/status/894579522724651009">August 7, 2017</a></blockquote>” id=”894579522724651009″ type=”twitter”}}

{{tncms-inline account=”JstoryDailyNews” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tyler Obee, Cecil Stallings, Xavier Lane and Quinton Baker plead to misdemeanor charges. A felony charge was amended down in plea agreement.</p>— Justin Story (@JstoryDailyNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/JstoryDailyNews/status/894579883111612417">August 7, 2017</a></blockquote>” id=”894579883111612417″ type=”twitter”}}

{{tncms-inline account=”JstoryDailyNews” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The men are placed on conditional discharge for two years, must pay $7,885 in restitution to Jerald Armfield to cover medical expenses.</p>— Justin Story (@JstoryDailyNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/JstoryDailyNews/status/894580285743878144">August 7, 2017</a></blockquote>” id=”894580285743878144″ type=”twitter”}}

{{tncms-inline account=”JstoryDailyNews” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">They will also have to perform 30 hours of community service. Upon graduation, they can seek to have the conviction set aside.</p>— Justin Story (@JstoryDailyNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/JstoryDailyNews/status/894580494657966080">August 7, 2017</a></blockquote>” id=”894580494657966080″ type=”twitter”}}