A trial has been ordered for two local residents charged in connection with a baseball bat attack on a man in Lyon Township.

29-year-old Christopher Simons of Fowlerville and 24-year-old Jessica Kropiewnicki of Lyon Township were in Oakland County District Court Tuesday for an exam on charges of assault with intent to murder. Following testimony and other evidence, they were both ordered to stand trial in circuit court. The charges were filed after deputies with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Lyon Township Substation were called out the morning of May 5th on a home invasion complaint at a home on Martindale Road. The homeowners say they had returned to find their front door forced open and a man covered in blood in their bathroom.

After being taken to the hospital, the man, later identified as 30-year-old Aleksander Malec of Northville, told medical staff and deputies that he had been attacked with a baseball bat by multiple people and had broken into the home in an attempt to seek medical assistance. He was also able to identify Kropiewnicki as one of those who assaulted him. She was arrested two days later by the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office on unrelated matters. Police say she then admitted that she and Simons had set Malec up, hit him on the head with a baseball bat and threw him in a river in a wooded area.

Both Simons and Kropiewnicki remain jailed on million dollar bonds pending a July 24th arraignment in Oakland County Circuit Court. If convicted, they both face up to life behind bars. (JK)