Suspect in August Lower Lake beating arrested in Oklahoma; victim on the path to recovery
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A second suspect wanted for the brutal beating of a Clearlake man was arrested this week in Oklahoma, while the victim in the case is in the midst of a lengthy recovery.
Elijah Cain Ward, 38, was arrested in Tulsa on Wednesday, according to Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Ward was arrested for the assault of 24-year-old Cody Myrick outside of Maynard’s Bar in Lower Lake in late August.
Word of Ward’s arrest came as welcome news to the family of Myrick, who is in the midst of rehabilitation from his injuries, according to his mother, Shannon Mason.
She said her son was hospitalized for two and a half weeks, with about a week of that time spent in a medically induced coma.
“His skull was fractured,” she said.
Authorities said Ward and Lorenzo Reyes Cespedes, 44, of Lucerne attacked Myrick late on the night of Aug. 25, as Lake County News has reported.
A deputy patrolling the area found Myrick unconscious on Main Street in front of the bar, officials reported.
Paulich said in a previous interview that bar patrons provided deputies with descriptions of the assailants, with a deputy locating Cespedes and Ward – both of them intoxicated – a short time later at Twin Pine Casino in Middletown.
Both spoke to deputies, with Cespedes later coming in to give a statement. He was arrested on the morning of Aug. 27 on felony charges of assault with great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury.
Ward told deputies there was an altercation between Myrick and Jennifer Ashley Thach, 39, of Lower Lake.
Thach has not been arrested in the case. Paulich said the surveillance video the sheriff’s office had obtained in the case did not show Thach taking part in the assault.
Mason said one security video showed her son and Thach walking together before he was attached by Ward and Cespedes.
“He doesn’t remember anything that happened that night,” she said.
In the days after Myrick’s assault, the sheriff’s office got an arrest warrant issued by the Lake County Superior Court for Ward’s arrest.
While they had a local address for Ward, Paulich said at the time that they couldn’t locate him and believed he had left the area.
That turned out to be the case, but authorities caught up with Ward on Wednesday.
Ward is being charged with assault on a person with force likely to cause great bodily injury and battery causing serious bodily injury. His bail is set at $100,000, Paulich said.
Paulich said Ward will be extradited back to Lake County. “I’m not sure how long that process will take.”
Outside of Ward’s arrest, Paulich said there are no new developments with the case.
Oklahoma arrest records show Ward has had other brushes with the law there, including an October 2015 arrest in Tulsa County for domestic violence, assault with a deadly weapon and threatening a violent act.
Cespedes has pleaded not guilty in the case and is expected to return to court in the case later this month.
Mason said her son already has overcome a great deal, from having to be kept in the coma to fighting pneumonia because of needing a breathing machine in the hospital.
Then there is the ongoing physical rehabilitation. He continues to work on strengthening the muscles on the side of his face in order to have them once again be symmetrical, she said.
Myrick, who works as a server at Main Street Bar and Grill, is ready to get back to work, and has retained his sense of humor, his mother said.
She called his progress “pretty amazing for what happened.”
Mason said her son has touched a lot of hearts in the county, and he’s gotten incredible support in return since his injury.
“This community really came together,” she said.
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