A local man has been identified as a possible suspect in a severe beating incident of a man who later died after leaving a local nursing home.

The beating may have led to another man’s death after the victim wandered out of the Logan Center skilled nursing facility on Three Mile Curve.

Last Friday, Prosecutor John Bennett told The Logan Banner that a suspect in the beating had been arrested in Tennessee on other charges and that he would be transported to Logan County for additional charges here in the Milon beating incident.

This week, Jere Dell “J.D.” Morrison, 18, of Logan, was booked at an area juvenile justice facility on $100,000 bond following arraignment in Logan Magistrate Court on charges of malicious wounding related to the beating incident that happened on Oct. 3.

According to police reports, on Oct. 3, the victim was discovered unconscious and severely beaten in Crystal Block Hollow at Sarah Ann.

“When Milon was located he was lying in a pool of blood with extensive injuries to his head and face,” the report by West Virginia State Police Trooper J.K. Harris states. “The victim was transported to Cabell Huntington Hospital via Air Evac where he was treated for multiple facial fractures and head trauma. (The) investigation revealed through witness reports that Jere Dell Morrison was the attacker of the accused and the individual responsible for causing the victim’s injuries.”

Milon had been in the Logan Center nursing home for rehabilitation of his injuries but he had walked out of the facility on the night of Nov. 2. Crews were immediately dispatched to search for him. Milon’s body was then found in the Guyandotte River under the Middleburg Bridge the next morning after first responders from several agencies searched the Guyandotte River all night. A Logan city employee found the body and alerted authorities.

“He spent two weeks in intensive care before he was in the nursing home,” said his uncle, Howard Knam. “He was in the nursing home less than a week, when he wound up outside the home. They were teaching him to walk at the nursing home.”

Tpr. Harris is the lead investigator on the case and anyone with information can contact him confidentially at 304-792-7200.

“David was not a violent person. He wasn’t a bother to anybody,” Knam said.

“He was horribly beaten and didn’t really recover,” Knam explained.