Romeoville Teen Accused In Fatal Baseball Bat Attack Shipped To Adult Jail

ROMEOVILLE, IL — A teenager accused alongside his father of beating a neighbor to death with a baseball bat was shipped off to the adult jail on his 18th birthday Saturday. Adam Ballard was 15 when he and his father, Mark Ballard, allegedly attacked 55-year-old Richard Pollack after he accused them of burglarizing his car. At the time, Romeoville police said at least nine people were involved in the attack outside Pollack's home in the 400 block of Tallman Avenue in the early hours of Aug. 10, 2014.

Last fall, Adam Ballard's lawyer, Paul Napolski, unsuccessfully attempted to get his murder case transferred to juvenile court, arguing that since the 2014 murder, a change to state law made 16 the age for automatically upgrading cases from juvenile to adult court. Ballard was initially charged as an adult, and in December 2016, a judge ruled that the case would return to adult court.

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Adam Ballard was transferred from River Valley Juvenile Detention Center to the Will County jail on Saturday morning. His bond was previously set at $1 million.

• Father, Teen Son Beat Romeoville Man to Death with Baseball Bats: Police

In 2014, Romeoville police said they responded at around 2 a.m. Aug. 10 to a report of a disturbance outside Pollack's Tallman Avenue home involving several subjects armed with baseball bats. Officers who arrived on the scene found Pollack critically injured. He was taken to Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police said the attack stemmed from accusations that Adam and Mark Ballard burglarized Pollack's vehicle several days earlier. The alleged burglary was never reported to police, and none of the other individuals who were allegedly present for the Aug. 10 baseball bat attack were charged.

Napolski, who represents both father and son, has said they were acting in self-defense when they killed Pollack.

Mark Ballard, now 45, is being held on $5 million bond. Father and son are both due in court June 15.