Three Bowling Green residents accused of conspiring to take part in an assault in which a man was allegedly struck several times with baseball bats and hospitalized will have their cases heard by a grand jury.

Demetrion Neal, 24, was arrested Feb. 12 by the Bowling Green Police Department on charges of first-degree assault and first-degree robbery.

Arieonna Martin, 19, and Cuartez Morrison, 18, were arrested on charges of complicity to both first-degree assault and first-degree robbery.

The arrests stem from a Feb. 11 incident on Carpenter Court in which city police were informed that an assault had taken place

Detective Kyle Scharlow of the Bowling Green Police Department testified Wednesday during a preliminary hearing in Warren District Court about his involvement in the investigation.

Scharlow said that when officers arrived, the victim was breathing, but unresponsive, and was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for treatment.

Police located a second man at the scene who also reported being assaulted, but whose injuries were relatively minor.

Scharlow testified that police learned the second man was actually the intended target of the alleged assailants.

Investigators learned from the second man that he and the other person had arrived at Carpenter Court with Martin, with Scharlow saying that the two men believed they were under the impression they were going there to buy marijuana.

“When they reached the area of Carpenter Court, they were approached by several subjects, one who was later identified as Mr. Neal had actually gotten inside the vehicle,” Scharlow said.

A physical altercation reportedly took place outside the vehicle, in which the less seriously injured man was able to run away while the other one was reportedly choked until he lost consciousness and beaten with baseball bats, Scharlow said.

Police located Martin and Morrison at an apartment on Ken Bale Boulevard in the early morning hours of Feb. 12.

Scharlow said that, while being interviewed by police, Martin reported that the man who received minor injuries in the incident had sexually assaulted her four or five months earlier, and that she related the alleged assault to Neal, Morrison and a juvenile.

“She talked to them about what had happened to her and a plan was concocted to set these individuals up to get retribution for what (the alleged assailant) had done to her,” Scharlow said.

Martin told police that she arranged with one of the men over Instagram to meet up on Feb. 11, and that after Neal entered the vehicle one of the men made a comment about having a gun on him.

“This seemed to concern and agitate Mr. Neal, who began questioning (the two men) if they did have a firearm on them,” Scharlow said Wednesday. “They reportedly denied having a firearm and it was then at that time that Mr. Neal ordered them out of the vehicle. When they got out of the vehicle, he engaged in a physical altercation.”

Scharlow testified that police were told that Morrison and the juvenile joined the altercation and assaulted the man who was able to get away.

Afterward, the alleged assailants took the vehicle, which belonged to one of the victims, from the scene, and it was located outside the apartment where Martin and Morrison were located, Scharlow said.

Morrison admitted to police that he took part in the assault and of possessing a baseball bat, but denied using the bat during the incident, the detective testified.

City police located Neal at an apartment complex on Thoroughbred Drive.

According to Scharlow, Neal also confessed to taking part in the conspiracy and confirmed details about getting into the vehicle and expressing concern that one or both of the men were armed.

“(Neal) said that during the assault he probably struck (the victim) 15 to 20 times with a baseball bat,” Scharlow said in court.

Neal reportedly told police he disposed of the two bats, which police located on the other side of a fence at the apartment complex, according to Scharlow.

The detective interviewed the hospitalized victim later that week, and the man claimed that two of his assailants were masked, two of them used bats and one used a knife, according to Scharlow.

The victim appeared to have several missing teeth, stitches to his upper left, significant swelling to his left eye, a broken wrist and cuts and bruises on several parts of his body, the detective said.

Warren Circuit Judge John Brown bound the case against each defendant over to a grand jury.

Neal, Martin and Morrison remain in Warren County Regional Jail under $50,000 cash bonds.