According to a statement of facts filed in Champaign County Municipal Court, three men went to Sycamore Hall, a dorm on Urbana’s campus, to sell someone 200 grams, about seven ounces, of marijuana — but the statement continues on to say that the buyer had intentions of stealing the weed from the sellers.
Two men went inside Sycamore Hall, while one of the men waited outside. A friend of the buyer was also in the room when the attempted drug deal happened and hit both of the alleged sellers in their heads with his gun.
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One of the alleged sellers also had a gun on him, and when he was hit, he dropped his own gun — which fired, although no one was shot.
The court document says at that point, all five of the men ran away from the dorm and the Urbana University campus.
Urbana University sent out an alert to the campus community saying shots had been fired and to avoid the campus area.
When investigators went into the dorm room, they say they found spots of blood, a gun, a piece of copper jacketing from a fired round of ammunition and marijuana, among other evidence.
Two people were indicted earlier this month for aggravated robbery charges in connection with the incident — Ryon Lucas, 21, of Trotwood and Dioro Geroski Jr., 22, address unknown. Three people were indicted on marijuana trafficking charges — Brandon Craft, 18, of New Carlisle, Hunter Donnan, 18, of Huber Heights and Ryan Rowland, 20, of Medway.
All indictments against the five defendants also have gun specifications, which could tack on another one to three years of prison time.
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Lucas pleaded not guilty to the charges against him on Thursday morning. In addition to the first-degree aggravated robbery charge, he also was indicted on two counts of felonious assault and one count of tampering with evidence. Police say he was the one who was allegedly buying the marijuana and had the intentions to rob the sellers.
His attorney was at the hearing with him and asked the magistrate for leniency when setting bond because he said Lucas is a full-time student at Clark State Community College and has a time-consuming work schedule.
The magistrate continued the bond Lucas posted in Champaign County Municipal Court, although he is not allowed to have any contact with any of the co-defendants in the case. He’s also not allowed to set foot inside Urbana University’s campus.
Craft’s bond from municipal court was also continued, and he is limited to the same bond restrictions as Lucas. Police say Craft was one of the two sellers who went into the dorm for the drug deal.
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They also said he was the one who was pistol-whipped, which caused his gun to fire. Craft also faces a felony charge of carrying a concealed weapon.
Rowland was the last of the defendants to be arraigned in court on Thursday. Police say Rowland knew about the deal and went with Craft and the other seller to the dorm — but waited outside while the deal went down. The magistrate released him on his own recognizance.
Donnan is due in court for a plea hearing on Friday morning. He was one of the alleged dealers who went into the dorm and was hit in the head with a gun.
Geroski had not been arraigned as of Thursday evening. In addition to the aggravated robbery charge, Geroski also was indicted on two counts of felonious assault for allegedly pistol-whipping Craft and Donnan.
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