Jesse Edwards Jr. has been charged with deliberate attempted homicide for the Sept. 8 assault that left a man with a traumatic brain injury.

Edwards, 14, was initially charged with felony aggravated assault in juvenile court.

Josh Racki, Cascade County attorney, told The Electric that his office decided to upgrade the charge based on the video footage of the assault, in which Edwards is seen stomping on the victim’s head while he’s laying motionless on the ground.

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Because Edwards was charged with the more serious charge, he appeared in district court last week to enter a plea.

Racki said in the case of juveniles charged with serious crimes, typically, the defense will request a hearing in district court during which the judge will determine whether the individual should be tried as an adult in district court, or if the case should be sent back down to juvenile court.

There are several factors the judge will consider during that hearing to determine how the case should be tried, Racki said.

Edwards is being held in the Cascade County Juvenile Detention Center on a $250,000 bond, according to court documents.

Shaun Deberry and Ethaniel Pherigo, both 19, were charged with felony counts of aggravated assault for the incident. Pherigo was also charged with a felony count of robbery.

Both remain in the Cascade County Adult Detention Center.

Pherigo’s trial is set for January and Deberry’s for February.

The victim, 37, was in critical condition following the incident, according to law enforcement officials.

A benefit dinner for Jake Kraus, the victim, has been organized for 2-8 p.m. Nov. 9 at the Black Eagle Community Center. There’s also a GoFundMe set up for the family.

According to his wife and the organizers, Kraus is a second year welding student at Great Falls College MSU and was celebrating his wife’s birthday at the Newberry the night of the assault.

The assault left him with permanent brain damage, the organizers said, and he’s been admitted to Craig Hospital, a neurorehabilitation center in Colorado, where he’ll be treated for several months.

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Deberry’s charging documents provide more details about the assault that occurred around 10 p.m. in the alley behind City Bar at 709 Central Ave. on Sept. 8.

Officers responded around 10 p.m. to the scene and a bar employee said there had been a group of people fighting who then walked down the alley. Officers went down the alley eastbound, the direction suspects had headed, and found a male lying unconscious in a pool of blood, according to court documents.

Officers checked the area for those matching the descriptions of those involved as given by witnesses and located the property manager for apartments in the alley who had video footage of the incident.

Officers also spoke to the manager of the Lifestyle Real Estate/Haute Hive building at 721 Central Ave. who provided video footage from their cameras to officers, who reviewed the footage and identified one of those involved as Pherigo, who was previously charged.

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Officers had Pherigo’s address in their system and responded to his residence in the 600 block of 8th Street North, where he was located. Pherigo initially told officers he didn’t know about the incident but later said he acted in self-defense, according to court documents.

According to investigators, the victim had left a concert at The Newberry and was walking downtown when he ran into the group of teenagers.

In the surveillance video, the victim, identified as J.K,, 37, was walking eastbound down the alley with a group of young adults behind him.

In the video, Deberry hits the victim in the head with a can of Sprite, according to court documents.

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The victim walks away, but is pursued by Deberry and the other five suspects.

In the video, the group is seen throwing the victim to the ground with Deberry stomping on him while he’s on the ground, according to court documents, and Deberry then walks away and two other males continue assaulting the victim, stomping on his head.

Pherigo is seen stomping on the victim’s head while he’s face down on the ground, then rummaging through the victim’s pockets while another male, later identified as Jesse Edwards, continues to stomp on the victim’s head, according to court documents, and Pherigo is seen in the video taking items from the victim.

Officers spoke to Pherigo’s family members and were able to identify others in the video, specifically Deberry and Edwards.

Pherigo told police that he and Deberry were involved and that Deberry had lured the victim into the alley, according to court documents.

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After the assault, Deberry went to a residence at 1101 3rd Ave. S. where the resident, Mona Ekblad told officers that Deberry and Edwards had arrived at her residence shortly after the assault. She told officers that Edwards had left  around 11:05 p.m. and Deberry had staying the night until contacted by law enforcement.

In speaking with detectives, Deberry admitted to the acts seen in the video and said the victim had a knife, according to court documents.

Deberry was on probation for a felony aggravated animal cruelty sentence from July. In that case, he hit his ex-girlfriend’s friend’s four-month old chihuahua with a pipe while the girls were walking, killing the dog, on the belief that his ex girlfriend had broken a window, according to court documents.

In that case, he was also located at Ekblad’s residence, according to court documents.

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In the Sept. 8 assault investigation, officers interviewed P.R., a juvenile who was in the alley during the altercation, who told officers that he and five others were walking downtown, including Pherigo, Deberry and Edwards.

P.R. said that the victim had approached them asking for methamphetamine and P.R. said no, so the victim had walked down the alley away from the group.

P.R. told detectives that as the victim walked away, Deberry called him back and hit him in the head with the soda can.

P.R. told detectives that he then rode his bike away from the group, not wanting to be involved in the altercation.