Two Admit to Attacking Researcher in Champaign

Two Champaign men have pleaded guilty to attacking an Australian researcher who was visiting the University of Illinois last year.

The News-Gazette reports Monday that 18-year-old Ralph Gray and 18-year-old Anthony Davis pleaded guilty to aggravated kidnapping. Last week 18-year-old co-defendant Dorian Wills pleaded guilty.

Prosecutors offered the three men a plea bargain capping their prison sentences at 20 years. All three will be sentenced in December.

Clinton Fookes was visiting Champaign while in the U.S. for a conference.  Fookes told police he remembered little about what happened to him but woke on the north side of Champaign on Oct. 21, 2011, bleeding and missing a watch and cell phone. The cell phone led police to the men.

Fookes was hospitalized for five days with head injuries.