Naked, bleeding, with a fractured skull and broken bones, Shaun D. Briggs jumped at gunpoint into a Schuylkill County pond, and lay down in the shallow water until his attackers finally left.

Before Jonathan T. Ford of Barnesville, and Jordan M. Stravinsky of Ringtown, drove off, Ford fired the gun toward the pond, Briggs testified Friday at a preliminary hearing before District Judge Christina E. Hale of Frackville.“I was in the pond for a few minutes. It felt like forever,” Briggs, who said he is still recovering from the Sept. 29 attack, testified.Later, Jennifer Calarco of Nuremberg, who was friends with Ford, testified that Ford and Stravinsky came to her house that night, and boasted about what they did to Briggs.“They bragged and then they went to a strip club, like it was just a nice night out,” Calarco said.They told her how Briggs was picked at gunpoint at his house in Union Township, beaten and forced into a pond a couple of miles away.They stripped off their clothes and burned them in a barrel at Calarco’s house, then Stravinsky cleaned the car they were driving, a car police believe they later torched.“They wanted for Shaun Briggs to be dead. They brought their problem to my house. To my children,” a trembling and weeping Calarco testified.After listening to testimony from Briggs, Calarco, and four other witnesses, Hale found sufficient evidence to send to county court charges of criminal attempt — murder of the first degree, three counts of aggravated assault, kidnap to inflict injury/terror, conspiracy to commit kidnap to inflict injury/terror, terroristic threats, two counts of simple assault, two counts of recklessly endangering another person, robbery with threat of immediate serious injury, reckless burning or exploding — places or property, having value that exceeds $5,000 or an automobile, criminal mischief/with intent to damage property, reckless or negligent propulsion of missiles onto roadways, and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence against Ford, 30.Hale also sent charges of conspiracy to commit murder of the first degree, conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, conspiracy to commit kidnap to inflict injury/terror, conspiracy to commit terroristic threats, two counts of conspiracy to commit simple assault, conspiracy to commit recklessly endangering another person, conspiracy to commit robbery with threat of immediate serious injury, conspiracy to commit reckless burning or exploding places or property having value that exceeds $5,000 or an automobile, conspiracy to commit criminal mischief with intent to damage property, conspiracy to commit reckless or negligent propulsion of missiles onto roadways, and tampering with or fabricating physical evidenceBoth remain in jail under $250,000 straight cash bail each.James G. Conville represented Ford; Chief Public Defender Michael J. Stine represented Stravinsky.Assistant District Attorney David J. Rice is prosecuting the case.According to court testimony and arrest documents, state trooper Alan Zulick of the Frackville barracks said police got a call shortly after 10 p.m. Sept. 29 from a man who said his friend, Shaun Briggs, had just been kidnapped at gunpoint from his home at 24 Pattersonville Road.At about 10:45 p.m., a call came in reporting that an injured, naked man was at a house along Ringtown Road, Union Township.Zulick said police went to the house, where they found Briggs, who had wrapped a throw rug he’d found around himself before stumbling through a cornfield to the first house he saw with lights in the windows.Briggs was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton for treatment. He testified Friday he needed 18 stitches for numerous cuts on his face and head, had a fractured skull, a tooth knocked out, a fractured nose, a broken finger, and a broken bone in his wrist.The next day, police interviewed Briggs’ friend, Wilson E. Bachert of Ringtown.Bachert testified Friday that he and Briggs were at Briggs’ house after a friend’s viewing when a car pulled into the driveway.Briggs went out to see who it was, and Bachert “heard a ruckus.”He went out to investigate, and testified that Ford “put a gun in my face.”Bachert went back into the house, were he watched from a window as Briggs was forced into a car at gunpoint, then beaten by Ford as Ford drove the car away. A woman was in the back seat, he said.Briggs testified that he knew both Stravinsky and Ford, and had been friends with Ford since childhood. He hadn’t seen him in nine months, but had gone to his house the night before just to see how he was doing. Ford wasn’t there, so he left a note asking him to call, Briggs said.On Sept. 29, when Briggs went out to the car, Ford grabbed him by the shoulder and told him “we’re going for a ride,” Briggs testified.He aimed the gun at him, and forced him in the front passenger seat, and kept punching him, with Stravinsky’s encouragement.They drove over back roads, while Stravinsky and Ford grilled him about “sabotaging” Stravinsky’s husband Brian’s pickup. Briggs denied doing that.When they got to the pond, Ford and Stravinsky forced him out of the car and told him to strip. Briggs did, and was ordered into the pond.Ford fired the gun at the pond, then he and Stravinsky drove off.Calarco’s husband, Dennis, testified they had come to their house to see Jennifer, but left when he told them she was painting and didn’t want to be disturbed.They returned later, and Stravinsky came in and asked Jennifer for $20. Ford, who had lived with the Calarcos for about six months, stayed out in the car, and Jennifer said she went out to see him.He was crying, she testified.He said he “had to take care of something.”About an hour or so later, they returned, and came inside. They were “high” and “manic,” Jennifer said.They stripped off their clothes, and Stravinsky burned them. Jennifer gave them clothes that were in her dryer.Ford and Stravinsky mentioned something like “the bullet didn’t hit him, and they were going to go back and kill him,” Jennifer said.Dennis testified that he later found a cellphone, belt buckle and clothes in the barrel.Trooper and state Fire Marshal John Burns testified that the car, which belonged to Jean D. Rhoads of Zion Grove, was found burned near Ford’s house on Oct. 1. A Molotov cocktail — flammable liquid in a bottle with a rag stuffed into the top — was found near the car. The fire, which started in the front passenger seat, was intentionally set, he said.A case of the same, uncommon beer as the bottle was found at Ford’s house, Burns testified.Rhoads testified she knew Ford because he had worked with her son. She said Stravinsky, whom she just met, texted her on Sept. 27 to ask if they could borrow her car for a couple of days so she could visit her daughter.Rhoads agreed, but they didn’t bring the car back, and she received a phone call at about 3 a.m. Sept. 30. A “rough” male voice told her to report it stolen, but to wait three hours to do that.The voice, which Rhoads testified she believed was Ford, told her to “just do it.”Rhoads said she was frightened he would hurt her two young grandchildren, who live with her, so she waited until the next day to call police.