3 charged in Pa. college student's death

Three men used a large wooden chair leg to beat a Kutztown University student to death last month in Pennsylvania Dutch country, a prosecutor said Friday in filing capital murder charges.

Police found Kyle Quinn, a 19-year-old sophomore from the Philadelphia area, lying in a pool of blood around 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 7. He was walking from his older brother's apartment on Main Street to his dorm room when he was attacked, police said.

Investigators have said the three men, all from out of town, apparently chose their victim at random.

The last homicide in Kutztown, a rural town of about 5,000 full-time residents between Reading and Allentown, was in 1982.

Charged with first- and third-degree murder, aggravated assault and conspiracy are Terry D. Kline Jr., 22; his brother Kenneth R. Kline, 21; and Timothy R. Gearhart, 23, all of Allentown. They were arraigned before a Fleetwood district judge Friday but did not enter pleas. The three were arrested the night of the attack and were being held without bail.

According to a police affidavit, the defendants were among five men who had driven from Allentown to a Kutztown bar.

One of the five, who was not charged, said the Klines and Gearhart told the group they wanted to find someone to beat up, the affidavit states. The Kline brothers and Gearhart "got out of the car and started causing a problem with a group of kids," according to the document.

Kenneth Kline and Gearhart confronted Quinn as he was walking up the street and talking on his cell phone, the affidavit states. Gearhart yelled at Quinn and hit him with a stick, "dropping him to the ground," the document reads.

Berks County District Attorney Mark Baldwin said he has not decided whether to seek the death penalty.

Eric Dowdle, an attorney for the Kline brothers, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The Berks County Public Defender's Office, which is representing Gearhart, declined to comment.