Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Nearly three years after being seriously injured in a schoolyard fight, and almost a year since a civil lawsuit was filed in the matter, a Warsaw teen was awarded $350,000 in damages.
Nathon Ybarra, now 18, was 15 years old when he was kicked into unconsciousness by Shawn Jefferson, 19, of Pierceton during a fight July 21, 1994, on the football field of Lakeview Middle School in Warsaw. Jefferson was 16 years old at the time and was waived to adult court on a Class C felony charge of battery. He was given an eight-year prison sentence, which was suspended for probation, and ordered to serve two years in the Kosciusko County Jail.
The fight occurred after school following a verbal confrontation between the two teen-agers. Jefferson reportedly called Ybarra a derogatory name and, as the teens were leaving the school building, Jefferson's father, Michael Jefferson, told him to "take it off school grounds" if they were going to fight.
The older Jefferson then sat in his vehicle and watched while his son beat and kicked Ybarra. A witness to the incident told police the Jeffersons left the area when she approached them. She identified Shawn Jefferson as Ybarra's assailant and said that Michael Jefferson made no effort to stop the fight despite Ybarra's condition.
When police arrived at the scene, they found Ybarra lying on his back with dirt and blood on his face.
Ybarra suffered a skull fracture and other injuries and was airlifted from Kosciusko Community Hospital to Parkview Memorial Hospital, Fort Wayne, because of the seriousness of those injuries.
The lawsuit, filed in February 1996, was done on Ybarra's behalf by Ybarra's father, Jose Ybarra, because his son's injuries left him with memory loss, loss of motor skills and losses in academic progress. He was seeking compensation for medical bills, including doctors, home health care nurses and therapists.
The stipulated judgment was agreed to by both parties and was recently finalized in Kosciusko Circuit Court.
