"He said he was going to hit me."

The first witness to testify at the preliminary hearing for Kody Marcelli's alleged assault case was the victim Gary Harner.

In response to questions by Deputy District Attorney Roger Rees,  Harner described what happened on September 5, 2017.

"There were two people," said Harner. "One, I would recognize. The other I am not sure."

He identified Marcelli in court.

Prior to the altercation, he was taking a walk with his wife Diane Harner "in our neighborhood in Cutten." This was by Ridgewood school.

"There were two young gentlemen parked in the elementary school parking lot. When I looked at them, they were looking down at their lap and then looking up."

Harner said Marcelli was in the driver's seat. "I looked up and kept walking."

"I said nothing." As he and his wife were walking, "there was a flipping of the finger at me and something yelled at me." He could not distinguish the words but "it was not friendly."

"I don't know which one" flipped him off, " I believe it was Marcelli." In response to that Harner said, "I saluted."

"The Harners continued their walk. "Mr. Marcelli and his friend came driving up next to me as I was trying to cross the street." According to Harner, Marcelli said, "Hey man, why were you looking at us?"

"I said, well you guys looked kinda fishy there." Harner said his wife Diane was behind him. "I didn't know at that time but she had pulled her cell phone out and was recording the interaction."

Deputy DA Rees said that since they were going to watch the video later, he was going to skip over the portion they were going to watch. The testimony picked up from where that video ends.

As Marcelli pulled away, he muttered "obscenities about my wife." Harner said he ran towards Marcelli's car. "He pulls down the street, flips the car around and starts driving back the other way."

Harner said that Marcelli turned the wheel and if he had not taken two steps to the right, the car would have come right at him. Harner said the driver's side of the door grazed his crotch area but it did not cause pain. He said his wife stopped recording as the car pulled away. The car drove down the street, said Harner.

One of the neighbors came out and asked what happened. Harner does  not know the neighbor's name or the address. The Harners continued their walk. As they turned around to walk back home, his wife saw two men walking down the street in their direction and asked him if they were the same two from earlier interactions.

Their path  crossed on Ridgewood Avenue. I will not print the exact address as it is Marcelli's home. Marcelli was standing to Gary Harner's left; the friend 3-4 feet away to Gary Harner's right. His wife was behind him.

"I said I don't appreciate you trying to run me over."

Harner said that Marcelli responded,  "I didn't try to run you over." Marcelli said he did not have enough room to turn around. "Then he told me not to stand so close to him." Harner said he was standing a foot away from Marcelli. "He said he was going to hit me."

Harner testified that Marcelli told him that he had called the police and "we are getting to the bottom of this" and that this was Harner paraphrasing what Marcelli said. Harner said he gave Marcelli a "puzzled look" about the police being called.

"We had our voices escalated," said Harner. "We were both  yelling at each other."

"The other guy diverted my attention by making a wisecrack. When his friend made a comment towards me, it was basically calling me an idiot." Again, Harner said he was paraphrasing. "I turned and looked at the other person."

"Next thing I know, I was waking up on the street." Harner said he lost consciousness and was on his back. "I didn't know at that time I had been hit." Harner did not remember falling to the ground. When he woke up, he felt pain. "Back of my head. Once I stood up, I felt pain right here." He indicated his lower right jaw. Harner said there was a lump on the right jaw area, circular injury about "this big"and pointed to the back of his head and pain in his left temple.

He was disoriented. He went to the ER at St. Joe's the next day. A few days before Thanksgiving he woke up with pain in his head and ended up having emergency brain surgery for a subdural hematoma.

Harner said he told Marcelli, "That was a nice sucker punch."

Marcelli responded, "I told you I was going to hit you."

Harner said he spoke to a Sheriff's deputy shortly after the incident and told the deputy that "Mr. Marcelli struck him in the face." His wife gave a statement to the deputy.

During cross, Harner said there had been some incidents in the neighborhood of people casing houses, a neighbor had an incident couple of months ago and as an insurance agent he had reports from the area that caused him to be cautious about any suspicious activity.

Previous posts:

https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2018/07/kody-marcelli-held-to-answer-on-felony.html

https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2018/07/for-someone-on-probation-and-facing.html