ST. LOUIS (AP) - A suburban St. Louis man remained hospitalized Thursday nearly two weeks after police say he was stomped on the head and chest during what a relative called an “incomprehensible” attack by a man at a house party.
Authorities allege Brandon Pudlowski was punched and kicked by Darrian Johnson, 21, after Pudlowski came to the defense of a young woman Johnson was insulting during a May 3 house party in the affluent suburb of Ladue.
Johnson was charged with first-degree assault and jailed on $100,000 cash-only bond, with his preliminary hearing scheduled for June 23.
Johnson’s public defender, Colleen Polak, did not return a message seeking comment Thursday.
Since the attack, Pudlowski has undergone surgery to stem bleeding on his brain, and part of his skull has been removed to relieve cranial swelling, aunt Regina Grasso told The Associated Press. Pudlowski, unable to speak because he’s attached to a ventilator, in recent days has used head nods to respond appropriately to hospital staff, though his left side moves involuntarily and his prognosis is unclear, Grasso said.
“I think he does have a consciousness that he’s in the hospital, but I don’t know if he knows why he’s there or anything,” Grasso said. “It’s just a miracle that he’s this far in such a short time.”
“There’s not been a prognosis. It’s in God’s hands,” she added.”I’m like, ’Is he going to be able to hear?’ Your mind just goes, ’What’s he going to be able to do?’ We don’t know.”
Grasso called the attack on her 130-pound nephew “a vicious act.”
“It’s incomprehensible,” she said. “I don’t know how anybody could have that much anger in them that they don’t have the switch (to stop the attack). Where’s that switch when you know this guy’s down? The stomping. That’s mean.”
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