In the early morning hours of March 6, 2015, Ryah Kelly — a resident of Spartan Village in East Lansing — received a phone call from someone who claimed to be a friend of a friend who needed help with a drunk acquaintance.
As Kelly went out to help the group of women in the Spartan Village parking lot a girl who Kelly had issues with in the past, Detroit resident Chinonye Nwangwu, emerged from the vehicle.
“I told her, ‘hold on, we don’t got to do this right now, my baby in the house,’” Kelly said, referring to her daughter, who was five months old at the time.
Her cries for peace were ignored as four other individuals, who she identified as black females, got out of the car and beat her to the ground. One suspect, Paris Strickland, sprayed her with pepper spray, a detail which would later emerge in court testimony.
After Kelly forced her way to her feet, one suspect, who was identified as Madison Reed by suspect interviews conducted by MSU police Det. James Terrill, struck her three times with a baseball bat, meriting eight staples at Lansing Sparrow Hospital emergency room. Later in court, another defendant, Tierra Hubbard also admitted to hitting Kelly with the baseball bat.
“I just saw the bat in the car and I used it,” Hubbard said during her plea hearing. “We didn’t really plan on that.”
Kelly’s car, a Pontiac G6, was totaled by the group of women with nearly $8,000 in damages. Kelly’s phone was also taken — a piece of evidence which would lead police to determine the suspects’ whereabouts in Detroit by using GPS tracking.
In court, Nwangwu said she and Kelly had altercations before the morning in March that left Kelly with stitches. Nwangwu said they had fought over the same man and had a physical encounter at a party months before the assault in Spartan Village.
Judge Rosemarie Aquilina of Ingham County Circuit Court did not care whether or not the two women had issues in the past because of the severity of the assault.
“Basically, you all left her for dead,” Aquilina said in court. “She had her child with her and you left her for dead.”
Kelly was eventually able to escape her attackers and return to her apartment where she contacted a friend to drive her to the hospital. Officer Aaron White confirmed he saw her with injuries to her face, head and knees.
The following day, Kelly was able confirm all five of her attackers through her own investigation on social media where she saw an Instagram post showing her alleged attackers together the night of her attack.
The five women — Strickland, Reed, Nwangwu, Hubbard and Brittani Barber-Gribble — all faced multiple charges, but were eventually all charged with two felony counts they pleaded guilty to, one for assault with intent to do great bodily harm and one for conspiracy to commit assault with intent to do great bodily harm, each of which carry maximum sentences of 10 years.
Nwangwu, the only one of the five defendants to serve jail time before her sentencing, received 24 months in prison and one year of probation following her release. All five women will share the cost of restitution, including the damages to Kelly’s car and her medical bills, which have yet to be determined.
“I have forgiven them, and I am moving forward,” Kelly said during Nwangwu’s sentencing. “But, they left me to die with my daughter sitting in my apartment, they should sit in jail.”
The remaining four women have yet to be sentenced, but are scheduled for sentencing hearings in March.
