Charges dropped in students' assault

~ Witnesses changed their stories about the Dec. 4 attack.

Assault charges against two former and one current Southeast Missouri State University football player were dropped Thursday when witnesses changed their stories.

Frederick D. Williams, 19, of Tampa, Fla., Timmy L. Holloman, 19, of Orlando, Fla., and Gerald D. Breedlove, 23, of Tulsa, Okla., had been charged with two misdemeanor counts of assault in the Dec. 4 attack on two Southeast Missouri State University students.

A fourth defendant in the attack, D'Eldrick D. Taylor, 21, of Vicksburg, Miss., pleaded guilty last month to one count of misdemeanor assault and received two years of supervised probation.

At the time of the attack, all four were Southeast students and on the football team. Following the assault, they were suspended from the university, but Holloman was later reinstated and rejoined the team.

On Thursday, Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle announced the charges against Williams, Holloman and Breedlove were dropped.

"Our key witnesses have all changed their stories," Swingle said. "We no longer feel we can prove the case."

The witnesses originally provided statements to authorities identifying the defendants as the assailants but later told prosecutors they would not be able to do so under oath, Swingle said.

"These drunken brawl-type fights are a prosecutor's nightmare," Swingle said, adding one witness who once claimed he saw the fight now says he only heard about what happened from someone else.

The students claiming to have been attacked were Shaun Johnson and Ransom Ward of St. Louis. The two Southeast students were punched and kicked while leaving a fraternity party, but were unable to properly identify their assailants.

Taylor threw the first punch, and the other three defendants were accused of kicking the victims while they lay on the ground, according to Swingle.

While witnesses changed their story in regard to Williams, Breedlove and Holloman, none of the witnesses who saw Taylor's punch changed their story, Swingle said.

A jury trial for Holloman and Williams was scheduled to have begun next Friday.

Breedlove had been sought by authorities, and he was believed to have fled to Oklahoma, Swingle said. The warrant for his arrest would be dropped.

Southeast dean of students Irene Ferguson did not immediately return a message requesting the enrollment status of Williams, Taylor or Breedlove.

kmorrison@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127