Baseball bat assault case resolved with guilty plea
A Butler man pleaded guilty in county court on Tuesday to an assault with a baseball bat.
Marc A. Pippens Jr., 28, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor simple assault before Judge William Shaffer.
The plea agreement calls for a sentence of time served to one year in jail, with fines and court costs. He is scheduled for sentencing Jan. 25.
Pippens was initially charged with felony aggravated assault after an incident on North Sixth Avenue in Butler Aug. 16.
The misdemeanor charge to which he pleaded was later added, and the remaining charge will be dismissed as part of the plea.
Police said Pippens attacked his ex-girlfriend's father with a baseball bat, causing the 59-year-old victim to be hospitalized with a head injury.
According to the report, Pippens hit Richard Kroll, of Connoquenessing Township, with a ball bat after Kroll had gone to his daughter's home to remove Pippens, who apparently had been living there, too.
For his protection, Kroll said he took a wooden baseball bat with him. He said he “knows Pippens can be violent,” documents said.
Kroll reported that when he got there, he set the bat down, and the two eventually got into a fight, where he was punched in the face.
Pippens then grabbed the bat and hit Kroll on the left side of the head “a couple times,” documents said.
Brittany Kroll recounted that when she got home she saw Pippens standing over her father, who was “laying in a pool of blood on a couch cushion,” according to a police affidavit.
Pippens then ran off when Brittany Kroll called 911.
By the time officers got there, Pippens was gone. Kroll was “bleeding heavily” from the left side of his head, according to court documents.
Officers a short time later arrested Pippens, who was spotted running on the side of a creek bed in nearby woods.
Kroll, who had bleeding cuts on the head, was taken by ambulance to Butler Memorial Hospital.
Police said they recovered the bat, which had blood on it.
Kroll was later charged with misdemeanor simple assault in the incident, and is awaiting further court proceedings.
Pippins also faces a probation violation case in Allegheny County, and will be returned there following his sentencing on this case.
