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WARREN -- Ny’cere Morgan, 21, of Ward Street NW, was arraigned Monday in Warren Municipal Court on a charge of felonious assault in a Saturday incident at a store in the 100 block of West Market Street in which he is accused of assaulting another man with a baseball bat, causing injuries.
Judge Natasha Natale set bond at $100,000, noting that Morgan has an "extensive capias history," meaning situations where a judge ordered for Morgan to be arrested by police if found.
Morgan also pleaded not guilty Monday to that alleged probation violation, according to court records.
Morgan pleaded not guilty to the felonious assault charge and returns for a second hearing Thursday afternoon. Natale ordered that Morgan have no contact with the victim or the store or its patrons. Natale also set bond of $5,000 in two other cases in Warren Municipal Court.
In one of them, a capias was issued for Morgan allegedly failing to pay fines and costs in February in a misdemeanor case. If Morgan is convicted of felonious assault, he could get about eight years in prison.
A Warren police report states that officers were called to the store at 11:02 a.m. Saturday for an assault in progress. The caller said a man was assaulting another man with a baseball bat and the man with the bat was walking away from the store on Parkman Road.
An officer spoke with the victim, who said that when he walked out of the store, Morgan approached him wearing a white mask/head wrap holding a bat. He said Morgan approached him while he was walking away, and Morgan was saying something about a girl. He said he thought the girl was his daughter's friend and that the man was referencing a domestic dispute in which the victim was involved.
The victim said he tried to talk to Morgan, but Morgan kept approaching him with the bat. He said the incident escalated quickly to Morgan hitting him with the bat in the back of the head and then the arm and leg, the report states.
The victim said he got "inside the house and lock the door." Morgan stayed outside banging his hand on the door, the victim said. Then Morgan banged the bat on a fence nearby and walked toward Parkman Road with the bat.
The victim showed the officer bruising on his arm near the shoulder. He said his leg also was swelling. The officer did not see an injury to the back of his head, but said it could have been hidden by the victim's hair. He refused medical care from ambulance personnel and was advised to take photographs of his injuries.
Citizens told the officer they saw Morgan hit the victim with the bat. The victim and witnesses said the suspect was a young, taller male with dreadlocks.
The officer spoke with store personnel who pulled up the surveillance video. Meanwhile, a person advised the officer that the suspect was returning to the store with the bat still in his hand. The store video showed the same clothing on the suspect as the man walking up to the store with a bat, the report states.
Another officer advised that the suspect had just took off running toward the store. Officers then looked in an area near the store and found Morgan wearing a white face covering. The officer ordered Morgan to show him his hands, but Morgan initially did not. The officer pointed his handgun at Morgan, and he took off his mask and put his hands above his head, then got on the ground when asked, the report states. Morgan was taken into custody and taken to the county jail.
The officer watched the surveillance video, and it showed Morgan with a bat near the store entrance wearing a white mask and the same color pants and jacket he was wearing when he was arrested. The video showed Morgan pointing the bat at several customers entering the store, but the customers ignored him.
The victim was seen leaving the store and approaching Morgan on the sidewalk. The two men were seen having a conversation, but then the victim walked away, and Morgan was "shifting" the bat between his hands and following the victim, the reports states.
The victim stopped, and the two spoke again. Morgan shoved the victim, almost knocking him over, and the victim ran away with Morgan chasing him. The two men disappeared behind a fence, but Morgan had the bat in his hand, the report states.
Another officer found a bat in a backyard area where the chase began, the report states. It matched the one that Morgan was carrying in the video, the report states. The officer also collected a white shirt that was being used a face covering.