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Jeremy McCool of Marlton was laying in the mulch area outside of the Doubletree hotel at the Monroeville Convention Center, making "snoring respirations and (had) severe facial trauma" when Officer Gowans and Corporal Frisk with the Monroeville Police Department, found him around 11:34 p.m. on Friday, April 14, 2023, according to the affidavit.
Vincent "Vince" Serzan, 46, also of Marlton was identified as the suspect by a witness from the hotel parking lot, the police explained in the affidavit.
McCool was taken to Forbes Regional Hospital by Monroeville Medics and was placed on a ventilator and in a medically-induced coma. A doctor told officers “every bone in his face was broken,” according to the complaint. His wife Michelle was later taken to the hospital by Gowans. McCool remains in critical condition, the doctors told the police on April 17, court records show.
The 911 caller was also in the lobby bar when Vince's wife Allison Serzan came and got him stating, that her husband and McCool had a fight, so he went outside and found "McCool lying on the ground and nobody else was around" so 911 immediately but he did not witness the assault, the police explained in the court documents.
The alleged sole witness who police Cpl. Frisk spoke with at the scene said she was in her car in the parking lot waiting on her husband when saw "two men talking real close to each other and thought it was a tense conversation, she could not hear what they were talking about, but she saw them pointing each others fingers in each others faces... she observed a female come out and touch the arm of (Serzan) as to calm him down, but he brushed her off," the police wrote in the court documents.
The witness checked her phone "and then looked back up to see (Serzan) punch McCool," who "went to the ground and Serzan sat on top of him and punched him seven to 10 times, bounced his head on the ground, and maybe punched him a few more times," she explained. She then told the police "I described it like MMA fight," adding that "McCool didn't even defend himself, it was just Serzan hitting McCool."
Then he suddenly stopped, picked up his cup, and walked back into the lobby with a woman, presumably Allison, according to the statement the witness gave to the police cited in the court documents.
As people come out of the hotel and gathered around McCool, the Serzan couple came back out but from the opposite side of the building, then they "stood near where McCool was laying for a few seconds and then walked back into the lobby," the witness concluded to the police.
Frisk then spoke with Vince Serzan, "he said he had an altercation with someone who had an affair with his wife a few months ago." He then explained that it started when they were drinking and ended up in a conversation. "McCool did not know that he (V. Serzan) knew about the affair" with his wife Allison, and then he asked McCool to go outside so they could talk some more, according to the affidavit.
He then asked McCool "what do you think I know?" and then said that he "knew McCool was lying to him" so he "snapped" and told police "he didn't do anything aggressive, 'just fists'," as stated in the affidavit.
Serzan was taken to the Monroeville Police Department, placed in the interview room, Mirandized, and he reiterated what he told Frisk at the scene, court documents detail.
This time he added more detail saying "he punched McCool 1-2 times while he was standing, and then they both went down...and he hit McCool 3-4 more times," but he wasn't "exactly sure how many times he hit him," as stated in the affidavit.
Serzan had "fresh abrasions on his right hand, right knee, and left calf area," according to Frisk.
Vince Serzan was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. Magisterial District Judge Craig Stephens denied bail because Serzan "is a threat to the victim," court documents stated.
His preliminary hearing is set before Magisterial District Judge Jeffrey L. Herbst on April 24 at 8:30 a.m., according to his court docket.
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