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Nathan Jon Barbian, 21, who was critically injured in a rollover crash in September, pleaded guilty to underage drinking and had his trial for home invasion postponed.
Barbian, wore a large neck brace — keeping his head essentially immobilized — as he admitted to Judge Margaret Shaw Johnson he was drinking alcohol April 5, 2007, when he was only 20 years old. He said he encountered a Winona police officer in the 450 block of Zumbro Street and submitted to a preliminary breath test.
The test found Barbian’s blood-alcohol level to be 0.19 percent. Johnson sentenced Barbian to 30 days in jail and gave him credit for 30 days already served when he was arrested in July on suspicion of committing the home invasion April 28.
Barbian has pleaded not guilty to charges of burglary and assault resulting in great bodily harm stemming from that incident. His jury trial was scheduled to begin in September, but a week before the trial date, he suffered a broken neck after being ejected from a car during a rollover accident on U.S. Highway 61 near Twin Bluffs.
His public defender, Frederick Suhler, said Barbian is scheduled to have surgery in a couple of weeks and will be unavailable to return to court for at least 60 days. The surgery will attempt to use bone from other parts of his body to strengthen his neck to avoid injury to his spinal cord, Suhler told the court.
According to the criminal complaint, Barbian and three accomplices, Jamie Robert Sherman, 32, Lisa Sue Stencel, 20, and Joseph Marshall Millen, 21, entered a home in the 700 block of East Fifth Street without permission. The complaint says they attacked Ryan Marshall McNally, 24, asleep on the couch in retaliation for a previous attack on a mutual acquaintance. McNally was stabbed 11 times and suffered a collapsed lung.
Sherman was convicted of burglary and assault Oct. 31, 2007, and testified against the other three, saying it was Millen who called the shots and stabbed McNally. Sherman is set to be sentenced March 20.
Millen faces charges of attempted murder, assault and burglary and is scheduled for a jury trial on Feb. 11.
Stencel faces identical charges as Barbian and has a jury trial March 24.
Depending on his health status at the time, Barbian is scheduled to begin his trial on April 7.
Contact Kevin Behr at (507) 453-3524 or at kbehr@winonadailynews.com.
PerfectStranger wrote on Jan 17, 2008 12:08 PM: