Neighbors, students and school officials lamented the loss of two teen?s futures after a Columbia wrestling champion admitted Tuesday to killing a student by striking him with a baseball bat.
Kevin Klink, 19, faces at least 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and dangerous weapon charges.
He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 26 in Howard Circuit Court for the death of Robert Brazell Jr. during a late-night melee involving about 20 teens Feb. 24 at Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City.
“It?s just so sad that one kid is taking the blame for all of them,” said Mary Ann Carroll, 39, a neighbor of the Klink family on Allview Drive.
“It didn?t seem premeditated … You hate to see someone so young have their life cut short.”
Neighbors said Klink still holds records at the local swimming pool. His former wrestling coach Brad Howell at Oakland Mills High declined comment.
Two fingerprints on the bat handle were linked to Klink using DNA, and Brazell?s DNA was found on the head of the same bat, according to court records.
Prosecutors agreed to the plea deal, because witnesses said Klink was defending his friend, who also was being pummeled.
But witnesses said Klink used a “homerun” swing to strike Brazell from behind in the head, which prosecutors called “an amount of force which was objectively unreasonable in his defense of another,” according to court records.
Klink admitted to police that he hit someone but struck what he thought was the male?s shoulder area, according to court records.
Former Mount Hebron High student Brazell, 17, died at University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore City.
“I think we were all in shock that something like that could happen on the grounds of Mount Hebron,” said Mount Hebron senior Allie Birmingham.
“But it was one of those things that could have happened anywhere.”
Tony Culler, president of the Mount Hebron High School PTA, who has children in ninth and 12th grades, said this incident should show youths that fights are unnecessary.
“It?s unfortunate that a kid had to die and now another kid has to spend 13 years behind bars for something that could have been avoidable,” he said.
Neither the Klink nor Brazell family could not be reached for comment. Klink is being held without bond at the county Detention Center.
Klink could have served life in prison for first-degree murder, but because of the plea agreement he faces ten years for the manslaughter charge and three years for the weapons charge.
