Old Man Gets in Bat Fight with Midlo Man He Called 'Scum'

By JOSEPH HOSEY (Patch Staff)

A wanted man captured after his girlfriend’s toddler gave him up to the cops is back in jail after getting into a bat fight with a 69-year-old man, police said. Cody Kern, 21, of Midlothian was out of jail just a week when he was arrested again Tuesday afternoon.

Alexandria Miller — the 20-year-old mother of the child who helped the cops catch Kern — was out of jail as well. And on Tuesday one of Kern’s relatives invited him and Miller to stop over at her Joliet home for pizza, police said.

But the relative’s 69-year-old lover didn’t want Kern and Miller around, police said. He reportedly called them “scum” and “druggies,” and ordered them to leave his home.

Miller punched the man in the face and nose, police said, and Kern went out to his car to get a silver baseball bat. Not to be outdone, the old man reportedly went to his garage and grabbed a black baseball bat, and then he and Kern started swinging at each other.

Miller took a shot to the stomach from the 69-year-old man when she stepped between the batsmen, police said, but the old man lost his footing and went down. Kern then allegedly hit him in the leg about 20 times.

Kern and Miller were both charged with the aggravated battery of a senior citizen. Miller, who was released on bond May 13, accompanied Kern back to the county jail.

The couple was last arrested the day before that when the the police came looking to pick Kern up on a warrant at a different Joliet address on the same street. Miller tried lying to officers about Kern being inside the apartment but her 3-year-old son interrupted to let the cops know, “Yeah, Cody’s here.” The child then pointed to the room where Kern was hiding, police said.

The officers reportedly got permission from the landlord to go inside the apartment and found uncapped syringes, several packages of heroin, baggies and burnt spoons. They also tracked down Kern, finding him hiding in a crawlspace leading from a bedroom closet, police said. There was a mattress covering the opening to the crawlspace in which Kern was lurking.

Kern and Miller, along with another man, 30-year-old Anthony Pajer of Joliet, were charged with possession of a controlled substance and endangering the life or health of a child. A second woman, Nancy Anderson, 29, of Rockdale, was charged only with endangering the life or health of a child.

The toddler’s father was contacted and came out from Minooka to pick him up, police said. An officer also reportedly alerted the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

As a condition of her bond, Miller was to have no contact with the boy.

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