The fourth and final suspect in the summer battery against University of Wisconsin football running back Montee Ball has been identified.
Joel DeSpain, Madison Police Department spokesperson, said 27-year-old Karlis Griffin remains at large. He said the lead detective on the case is still trying to locate Griffin and is seeking any assistance to try to locate him.
Four men attacked Ball on the 500 block of University Avenue the morning of Aug. 1 where he sustained head injuries that caused him to be hospitalized.
Griffin has contacts in Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago, DeSpain said. He said the four men’s motivation to attack Ball led back to an incident that had occurred at a house party earlier in the summer, the night of July 27.
According to the MPD statement, UW students and members of the UW football team attended the party. Ball attended the party, but was not part of a large fight that happened there, the statement said.
“[The battery was] revenge for what took place a couple of weeks earlier,” DeSpain said. “One of the suspects got into an altercation at a party.”
According to the statement, five suspects had attacked Ball. DeSpain said the eyewitnesses of the attack had incorrectly identified five attackers, and only four people had participated in the attack.
The other three attackers have been identified as Wendell Venerable, Deonte Wilson and Robert Wilks, according to the statement. All of them were 21 years old and UW students at the time of the attack, DeSpain said. The three men were each charged with substantial battery-party to a crime.
Venerable and Wilks have both been placed in the First Offenders Program, which is run by the Dane County District Attorney’s Office, Assistant District Attorney Michael Finley said. The First Offenders Program is a customized program for young first offenders, and often includes community service and other proponents, Finley said.
Finley said Deonte Wilson will most likely be put in the First Offenders Program also. On Jan. 10, Wilson gave the detectives a statement about what had happened.
“[Deonte Wilson] had been cooperative with them about what had happened,” Finley said.
Wilson was charged with substantial battery and was probably the least involved in the attack, Finley said. He had his plea hearing Jan. 18, DeSpain said.
There are still warrants out for Griffin’s arrest, Finley said.
According to a Wisconsin Court System Circuit Court statement, Griffin has been charged for breaking the law in Dane County in the past. Griffin has been found guilty of substantial battery-intend bodily harm, a felony which was filed in 2009, and disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor filed in 2011.
Ball played for the Badgers for four seasons and, along with holding a record for rushing touchdowns, has made a touchdown in three consecutive Rose Bowls for the Badgers.
