Case in which a superior force (in the form of a machete) was
used to overwhelm the force of evil (in the form of a ball bat).
And one heck of a dilemma — to protect the husband or protect
the children.

=======
Victims recount assault with club
in testimony on opening day of trial

by Stephen Hudak, Plain Dealer reporter

MEDINA — Candice Sperko’s choice July 18, 1998: protect her
husband or kids.

Her husband, Dwayne, 46, lay on the railroad trcks, dazed from a
baseball-sized rock that struck him behind the ear. Their son
screamed from the car for his helpless father to get up.

While Sperko tried frantically to lift her husbnd, she kept one
eye on Ryan Duncan, then 16, who had attacked her husband and was now
beating an elderly man with a ball bat.

Suddenly the youth turned and began stalking back toward the
Sperkos’ car where their son, Jordan, 12, and a friend were locked
in the back seat. Duncan was lugging the blood-spattered bat.

She said she feared for both her husband and the children.

“I stayed with him as long as I could,” Sperko testified yesterday,
breaking into tears in Medina County Common Pleas Court. “I ran back
to the car. I didn’t want to leave him but I had to.

Duncan, who has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of
insanity to five counts of felonious assault, swung hard, clubbing
the car once before it roared away without Dwayne Sperko.

Duncan was shackled and handcuffed as his trial before Judge
Christopher J. Collier began yesterday. He suffers from schizo-
phrenia but also has been diagnosed with antisocial personality
disorder, which does not qualify as a severe mental disease for
the purpose of legal insanity.

Medina County Prosecutor Dean Holman said Duncan knew the conse-
quences of his actions because he finally stopped his assault on
motorists when confronted with a man with a machete.

The incident in Liverpool Township two years ago critically
injured three people, including Dwayne Sperko, who said he deals
with occasional dizzy spells, headaches and hearing loss.

The Sperkos were returning home to Strongsville from a niece’s
graduation party.

Herman Becker, 70, barely survived, suffering eye socket, jaw
and ankle fractures, according to the emergency-room doctor who
treated him at Medina General Hospital.

His wife, Cosa, was struck in the face with the bat.

The beckers were returning home to Michigan from a family
reunion.

Defense lawyer John Dolatowski did not have an opening state-
ment yesterday, but has argued Duncan was mentally ill then and,
therefore, should be acquitted. He shushed Duncan, who complained
loudly during Holman’s opening remarks. Sheriff’s Deputy Mitch
Pope also sat directly behind Duncan during most of yesterday’s
proceedings.

Duncan, whose hair is trimmed into a mohawk, mostly fixed his
glare on the floor during testimony from the Sperkos, Beckers and
others who encountered him on Ohio 303 two years ago.

Daniel Davenport said he pulled out a bat, hoping to persuade
Duncan to stop. Instead, Duncan took the bat from him and hit
Herman and Cosa Becker.

Nurse Michelle Gatt said she begged Duncan to stop beating
Herman Becker, pleading, “You’re killing him, you’re killing
him.” She recalled he just looked blankly at her and kept
swinging.

Although a minor in July 1998, Duncan is being tried as an
adult because Juvenile Court Judge Jill R. Heck decided he was
not amenable to rehabilitation in facilities designed for the
care and supervision of children.

He is in Medina County Jail.

–
Printed by Plain Dealer (Cleveland OH) Tue 08/08/2000, p. 5B
Transcribed by R W Fowler <[email protected]>