The 25-year-old man accused of stomping on a teen girl's head outside a St. Louis County McDonald's has a litany of previous arrests for assault, including one conviction in the City of St. Louis for which he is currently on probation.
These details came to light at a bond hearing for Johnny Ricks, who is facing a first-degree assault charge stemming from the April 7 incident.
St. Louis County Circuit Judge Krista Peyton ordered Ricks to remain in jail on a $150,000 bond, but not before a back-and-forth between prosecutor Te'Arie Williams and Ricks' attorney Derek Cortez.
Cortez says the brief video of Ricks pulling on the long braids of Aryiah Lynch and putting his foot down on her head is a "small snippet" of what went down that day and doesn't paint a full picture of what happened. According to Cortez, in the moments preceding what is captured on film, Lynch was attacking Ricks' younger sister.
"His sister was being beaten up, and he intervened," Cortez told Judge Peyton. He added that no one is arguing the age difference between Lynch and Ricks, but that at the same time, no one asks how old someone is when their sibling is being attacked.
Lynch's mother, who also spoke at the hearing, vociferously pushed back on that narrative. "The video speaks for itself," she said. "There was no need for him to attack her."
Williams played that video for Judge Peyton as part of her argument against Ricks' bond conditions being relaxed. She also ran down his at least seven previous arrests for assault dating back to 2018, including incidents in the city and county, as well as at Lincoln University and in Jefferson City.
Not all the arrests led to charges. However, two 2021 felony assault charges in St. Louis city did lead to a conviction for which Ricks was on probation when he was charged for the incident outside the McDonald's, Williams said.
Lynch's mother stressed to the judge that her daughter is 15 but "looks twelve." She was working the McDonald's job to save up money for when she turned 16. She said that her daughter is now afraid to leave the house, has endured one surgery, and will need to go through others. She can't breathe through her nose.
"When my baby's nose bleeds it comes out through her mouth," she said. "That's what we're going through right now." She added that she was upset that the state of Missouri has no attempted murder charge but pleased that Ricks' initial 2nd-degree assault charge has been upgraded to first-degree.
She did not give her name to the judge before speaking and declined to speak to the media afterward.
About a dozen of Ricks' friends and family members were outside the courtroom during the hearing.
"Unlike a lot of my clients, Mr. Ricks has a very strong support system in the community," Cortez said.
He told reporters after the hearing that he is currently in the process of getting security camera footage which will show what led up to Ricks' alleged assault.
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