2nd soldier arrested, accused with 3 other men of beating homeless Ohio man under bridge

2nd soldier arrested in Ohio homeless man beating

CINCINNATI — Authorities in North Carolina on Wednesday arrested a soldier who is accused with three other men of assaulting a homeless man in Ohio just because they wanted to beat someone up.

Spc. Travis D. Condor, stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and the other men — Pvt. Riley Feller, Michael Hesson and an unnamed suspect — had been drinking when one of them suggested that they go out and “kick somebody’s butt,” Cincinnati police have said. They then decided to target a homeless person they didn’t know, police said.

The homeless man, John Johnson, had been sleeping at his encampment under a bridge on April 10, when the men beat him with a baseball bat and pipe and cursed at him, police said. Johnson, 52, suffered a fractured cheekbone and had cuts and bruises over his body.

“They kept calling me a bum and telling me to get a job,” Johnson said Tuesday.

Hesson, a 24-year-old civilian, lives in the Cincinnati area, and police say the other three suspects apparently were in town for the weekend and got together with him and other friends before the beating.

Condor, a native of Savannah, Ga., was arrested on the base at Fort Bragg, said Maj. Brian Fickel, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division.

Condor, 25, will be transferred to the custody of civilian authorities, Fickel said. Ohio authorities were seeking extradition to return Condor to Cincinnati to face a charge of felonious assault.

Feller, who is based at Fort Knox in Kentucky, waived extradition earlier Wednesday and was to be returned to Cincinnati to face a charge of felonious assault, authorities said. Feller, 24, is from Union, Ky., according to the Army.

It could not immediately be determined Wednesday whether Condor and Feller had attorneys to represent them, and military officials said they could not confirm whether the two men had attorneys. There were no phone listings for Condor in Savannah or for Feller in Union.

Hesson was the first of the suspects to be arrested on a charge of felonious assault. He was released on bond Tuesday. There was no phone listing for him in the Cincinnati area. His court-appointed attorney, David Donnett, has declined to discuss what Hesson has said about the allegations, citing attorney-client privilege.

Police initially said the fourth suspect was believed to be stationed at Fort Bragg, but Cincinnati Detective Kristen Shircliff said Wednesday that authorities were having trouble locating him and that he might not be stationed there.

Condor and Feller served in Iraq, military officials said.

Condor is an infantryman assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division in June 2008 after initial training at Fort Benning, Ga., and a short assignment at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, Fickel said. Condor returned from a year of deployment in Iraq in November 2009.

Feller served a year in Iraq while he was with the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, returning to the United States in July 2008. He was assigned to the 16th Calvary Regiment at Fort Knox in February 2009, Army spokeswoman Anne Torphy said.

Feller was facing misdemeanor assault and other charges in an earlier case in Cincinnati in May 2009, and arrest warrants were issued for him after he failed to show up in court in July 2009, court records show.

Torphy said that discharge proceedings against Feller began in February and are continuing. Army officials were not aware until November that Feller had been arrested or had warrants out against him, said Torphy, who could not comment on the specific reasons for the discharge proceedings because of privacy requirements.

Fickel said there was no record of any disciplinary action involving Condor.

Associated Press writer Brett Barrouquere in Louisville, Ky., contributed to this story.