Hundreds packed the Fairborn High School auditorium on Saturday, Nov. 28, to remember Kernich, a 2005 Fairborn graduate and Kent State University student who died Nov. 21 in Akron City Hospital after being beaten on Nov. 15.
Kernich’s high school football jersey was posted up near his wooden casket, which was placed in front of the stage in the auditorium on Saturday. The casket, which was partially covered with a white T-shirt that was decorated with signatures around a large number 80, remained opened during the service.
One other high school friend and three college friends tried to comfort the mourners with funny stories and memories of a young man known to most as C.K.
Most of the mourners wore buttons with Kernich’s face in the center of a star and the words, “Our Angel,” written across the top.
Investigation continuing
Cleveland’s Plain Dealer newspaper reported Friday that a grand jury recently indicted two University of Akron students with felonious assault in connection with Kernich’s beating. Those students are Ronald Kelly, 20, and 21-year-old Adrian Barker. Both men were identified by the newspaper as being former Shaker Heights High School athletes.
Some details of what exactly led to Kernich’s death are still unknown, but The Plain Dealer’s report of the 2 a.m. attack said police reported that Barker, Kelly and another man named Glen Jefferson, 21, had come to Kent for a fraternity party.
Jefferson, who has not been charged, allegedly drove a vehicle, carrying Barker and Kelly, on East Main Street. The vehicle nearly hit the people in Kernich’s small group. The vehicle was then driven to a nearby drive close to Depeyster Street, where police said the three men allegedly waited for Kernich’s group to come by.
It is unclear what happened next, but police reported that at some point, some males got out of the vehicle that Jefferson was driving and allegedly attacked Kernich and his group.
The attack left Kernich, 23, in a coma before he died on Nov. 21.
‘Always Remembered. Never Forgotten’
Inside Kernich’s casket, which was surrounded by several college and professional football jerseys, baseball caps and flowers, was a small stuffed dog and more flowers.
Numerous pictures of Kernich were featured on posters, photo albums and scrapbooks on and around a table near the entrance of the school’s auditorium. One poster featured a smiling Kernich, wearing a Kent State T-shirt and a Yankees baseball cap, with the words, “Always Remembered. Never Forgotten.”
The funeral ended around noon with a procession, lead by the staff of Belton-Stroup Funeral Home with assistance from Fairborn Police, heading to Byron Cemetery & Mausoleum, 3256 Trebein Road.
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