The Inter-Mountain photo by Taylor McKinnie Daniel Leach, left, sits with his attorney, Alex Harclerode, right, in Randolph County Magistrate Court Monday morning.

ELKINS — Probable cause was found in Randolph County Magistrate Court Monday in the case of a Montrose man involved in a parking lot fight that led to a man being hospitalized in critical condition.

Daniel Kenton Leach, 39, who is charged with malicious assault, a felony, appeared in Magistrate Court for a preliminary hearing Monday morning. He is currently being held in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $20,000 cash-only bond.

Leach is accused of assaulting Dylan Hall on Nov. 6 at the Holiday Inn Hotel parking lot in Elkins. Hall was working in Elkins on contract with CSX.

At the hearing’s start, Leach’s defense attorney, Alex Harclerode of Harclerode Law in Shinnston, asked Randolph County Magistrate Tracy Harper for a bond modification for Leach’s to a surety bond, citing that a $20,000 cash-only bond is not reasonable.

“Judge, I come here like a soapbox every time, that is not a bond,” Harclerode said to Harper. “Nobody can make $20,000 cash bond. If they can it’s less than 1% of 1% of the Randolph County population. Certainly not my client.”

Harclerode also argued that he did not have any indication that Leach was a flight risk or a danger to the community. Assistant Randolph County Prosecutor Leckta Poling disagreed, arguing that Leach is a danger to the community due to the charges against him, citing that the alleged victim had to be on a ventilator for three days after the incident.

Harper denied Harclerode’s request for bond modification.

Poling called to the witness stand Patrolman C. Mayle of the Elkins City Police Department, who had intervened in the fight.

When asked by Poling as to what occurred on Nov. 6, Mayle said he had been patrolling Railroad Avenue around 10 p.m. when he witnessed a “physical altercation between several subjects” at the side parking lot at the Holiday Inn Hotel. Mayle said when he made his way over to the subjects, he witnessed Leach, unresponsive, on the ground with Hall on top of him with two other men surrounding them.

“On the victim I observed what appeared consistent with blunt force trauma to his head,” Mayle said, adding later that there were no weapons on the scene. “What was apparent to me on scene was a cut, a laceration, above either the victim’s right or left eye, and what appeared to be some busted lips.”

Both Leach and Hall were taken to Davis Medical Center, Mayle said, with Leach being discharged a few hours later and Hall having to be taken by an emergency squad ambulance to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown after receiving treatment at DMC.

“So as of right now I know that (Hall) was on a ventilator, not breathing on his own, for several days,” Mayle said. “I called last week to get an update, check on his status. He had underwent surgery which involved them actually having to wire his mouth shut, so he was coherent and off the ventilator, but he was unable to talk due to the treatment where his mouth was forcibly closed.”

Mayle said all four men at the scene seemed to be intoxicated and there is no known connection or relationship between Leach or Hall. Mayle testified that he witnessed surveillance camera footage from the Holiday Inn Hotel, which showed Leach approaching Hall and two other men, walking away, returning and then shoving Hall.

Mayle said that the two other men at the scene, who were both coworkers of Hall, said in statements that Leach had come up to them while making threats, to which they responded by telling him to leave. Leach did leave, according to the men, but then returned around two minutes later still making threats. Mayle note that, while the two men said Leach was the aggressor, Leach made “excited utterances while on scene” that Hall had started the fight.

During his cross-examination, Harclerode asked Mayle if Leach had been the one to sustain critical injuries, would Hall have been charged. Mayle said yes.

“So the basis for you charging malicious assault is that (Hall) just received significant injuries,” Harclerode asked.

“Yes,” Mayle responded.

“Are you going to charge the other party with battery?” Harclerode asked.

“…If (Leach) would like to pursue that route, yes,” Mayle said.

Harclerode asked repeatedly if there was any knowledge of who threw the first punch, whether from testimony or the surveillance footage, to which Mayle replied that it was not clear who threw the first punch. Harclerode also questioned if Mayle knew how many times Leach hit Hall or if he knew if Leach did anything more than just hit Hall. Mayle said he did not know.

When asked by Harclerode how Mayle knew Leach started the fight and “intended to maim, disfigure or kill” Hall, Mayle stated that, he believes, if Leach had not approached Hall multiple times, this would have never happened.

“I believe that, by (Leach) approaching and not having any kind of affiliation with these individuals, I believe that whenever he approaches, there are words exchanged, he then leaves, returns and the push, which happens, and then the physical altercation later on. I believe that if he had one hundred percent removed himself from the event, none of this would have ever happened,” Mayle said.

The defense did not call any witnesses.

Harclerode argued in closing remarks that the state had failed to prove Leach’s intent per the statute that defines malicious assault, as there were no weapons or evidence that Leach hit Hall more than once.

“Sounds like my client at least hit him one time,” Harclerode said. “Doesn’t sound like there’s any evidence of anything else. We don’t even know if he hit him one time. We know he’s injured, so maybe we could assume that.”

Harclerode also argued that, if Leach had hit Hall, that was probable cause for battery, not malicious assault, as “injuries don’t make it malicious assault, it’s the intent that makes it malicious assault.” He asked for the case to be dismissed or for Leach’s bond to be modified.

Poling, in rebuttal, said that Hall’s injuries do matter in the charges and that it was clear that Leach had intent as he approached Hall and made threats, left, came back and made more threats and physically made contact by shoving Hall.

“There’s nowhere in the statute does it say you have to use a knife, you have use a gun, you have to use a car, so all of what Mr. Harclerode argued is not in the statute,” Poling said. “It’s not what the court should consider. You do not have to have a weapon to commit unlawful or malicious assault. You just have to cause an injury. Bodily injury, that’s in the statute.”

Poling added that “it’s lucky that this isn’t a murder case.”

Harper, in her decision, said that she found probable cause that “the offense was committed and that the defendant committed to it.” The case will be bound over to Randolph County Circuit Court for consideration for the grand jury.

If convicted of the charge, Leach could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.