 "Photo: Chelsi Baker/The Daily Athenaeum")
Two Delaware men have been found guilty in connection with the Nov. 7, 2009 beating of Ryan Diviney, a West Virginia University student who remains in a coma in a New Jersey Hospital.
The jury of eight men and four women convicted Jonathan May, 19, of misdemeanor battery, and Austin Vantrease, 19, of felony malicious assault. They reached the verdict Friday.
The charge against May caries a maximum sentence of one year, while Vantrease could spend up to 10 years in prison according to West Virginia Penal Code.
They were tried last week at the Monongalia County Courthouse in front of a 12-member jury and "quite the audience" as noted by presiding Judge Russell Clawges.
The jury began deliberations at 4:30 p.m. Friday and decided to break for the weekend at 7:30 p.m. They continued Monday until the verdict was announced.
Benches for the defense were nearly filled with friends of May and Vantrease, some of whom were there the night of the altercation.
The benches for Diviney were also filled, with his father Ken Diviney and sister Kari sitting together with friends and family, some donning "Team Diviney" T-shirts.
Both Vantrease and May took the stand in their defense.
Video surveillance of the incident at the Willey Street Dairy Mart was reviewed several times over the course of the trial.
Witnesses of the fight, Jessica Guay and Jordan Laudeman, friends of May and Vantrease, testified about what they saw the night of the incident.
Guay and Laudeman were also the pair that called 911 after seeing Diviney seizing on the ground that night, but left before the ambulance arrived on the scene.
Guay testified that she heard Diviney say "I want to fight you one on one."
She also said May punched Diviney then Vantrease kicked him in the head once he was on the ground.
"Directly as I made contact, I knew it was ridiculous that I did that," Vantrease said during his testimony. "I regretted it from the second my foot hit him. I knew I shouldn't have done that. He was already on the ground ... It made me feel horrible. I basically didn't speak all night."
Vantrease testified that Diviney, May and himself were not part of the original fight between their groups of friends.
He said the two groups passed each other going opposite directions and kept walking, then when he heard yelling, he turned around and went back toward the commotion between one of his and Diviney's friends.
When Prosecuting Attorney Marcia Ashdown asked Vantrease, "Did you and Jonathon May cause every injury to Ryan Diviney?"
Vantrease replied, "I believe so."
He is currently being held at the North Central Regional Jail while May remains on Bond. No date has been set for sentencing.