CLEVELAND — The Cleveland family of 27-year-old Britney Napier has been left with frustration and anguish after the man charged with shooting Britney in the head was released on bond three days after the March 25 incident.
Cleveland Municipal Court confirmed police arrested 51-year-old Yuri Kornik and charged him with two counts of felonious assault in the case. The court confirmed Kornik was issued a $25,000 10% bond on the charges and he was able to pay $2,500 and leave jail.
Britney's mother, Stephanie Gomez, believes Kornik should have been given a much higher bond and kept in jail pending the outcome of the charges against him.
“I’m angry, my daughter is in the hospital fighting for her life and this guys been out for a week now. He shot my daughter on Saturday and he got out Monday morning," Gomez said. “He gets to walk around like nothing happened. I don’t think that’s right, he should be in jail at least until court.”
Police report Britney Napier and her boyfriend parked in Kornik's driveway just after midnight after they reported their car developed battery issues. Gomez told News 5 Kornik came out of his home with a gun and allegedly started shooting even though the couple tried to leave his property.
"You come out of your house, you don't even call the police, you think that they’re supposedly trying to rob you and they pull out of your driveway backwards trying to get away from you and you’re shooting at them,” Gomez said. "You shot her five houses down from where you reside."
Cleveland police report the case is still under investigation.
News 5 reached out to the attorney representing Kornik in the case, but we're still waiting for a response.
Cleveland Municipal Court told News 5 that pre-trial services determine a defendant's "flight risk" based on a wide variety of factors to help ensure a person charged will show up for court. The court said judges set bonds based on a predetermined schedule of criteria based on the charges filed by the prosecutor's office.
The court told News 5 Kornik was issued a "no contact" order with Napier and her family, and that Kornik had no prior convictions or charges on his record in Cuyahoga County.
News 5 also contacted the Cuyahoga County Prosecutors' office and it confirmed the case will be turned over to a grand jury within the next two weeks for consideration of more serious charges.
Still, Napier's Aunt, Elly Carpenter believes the guidelines on how bonds are set in cases involving firearms and serious injuries must be changed.
“For them to just let him out like that, I don’t have any words," Carpenter said. “It needs to change before somebody else has the same thing done to them, it’s never going to end if they don’t nip it in the bud and get things the way they should be. Plain and simple I hope my niece gets justice, I want her to get justice, that’s the least that can come out of this."
The family has set up a GoFundMe account for Britney Napier, because it's not clear if she has medical insurance to help the family pay for her fight for survival and hoped recovery.
Watch live and local news any time:
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
