An Ocean City man was convicted on Thursday for attacking two men outside a country music concert in Camden.
A jury found John T. Kernan, 21, guilty on third-degree counts of aggravated assault and endangering an injured victim.
Kernan and another Ocean City man, 21-year-old Jacob R. Terry, were accused of assaulting the victims in a parking lot near Campbell’s Field after attending a Zac Brown Band concert at the Susquehanna Bank Center.
During the trial, Assistant Prosecutor Michael Block Jr. called a witness who testified that Terry punched one of the victims, causing the man to hit his head on the bumper of a bus and lose consciousness. The witness indicated that Terry and Kernan then kicked the unconscious man in the face at least twice.
The attack occurred around 11:30 p.m. on July 21, 2013, when the defendants started a fight with a man who is a friend of the victims and is related to a romantic rival of Terry. The victims, both 25-year-old men from the Ocean City area, were injured during the altercation and taken to Cooper University Hospital for treatment.
The defendants were arrested a short time later by members of the Camden County Sheriff’s Office who were assigned to a security detail for the concert.
Terry pleaded guilty on March 9 to third-degree aggravated assault. Under the plea, he agreed to a sentence of three years in state prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 17.
Kernan, who was also convicted of a petty disorderly persons offense, faces a maximum sentence of five years in state prison on the aggravated assault charge alone. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 24.
Kernan is a 2012 graduate of Ocean City High School.
— News release from Camden County Prosecutor Mary Eva Colalillo
