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DECATUR – Five years and two months after a group of nine teen friends stomped to death 61-year-old Jerry Newingham and almost killed 46-year-old Kevin Wilson, the group's leaders, Deonta Johnson and his brother Elliott Murphy, are preparing for their second trial.

Johnson and Murphy were serving lengthy prison terms when the 4th Appellate Court overturned their convictions last October, citing legal technicalities.

This was one of the first “point 'em out, knock 'em out” fatal attacks reported nationwide, in which groups of teens attack strangers to try to knock them out with a single punch.

Newingham was riding his bicycle on Sawyer Street near Monroe Street during the afternoon of Aug. 24, 2009, when Johnson punched him in the head, knocking him out and to the ground. Newingham was robbed of his wallet as the mob kicked, punched and stomped on the defenseless Vietnam-era Army veteran.

After running off, the mob regrouped about an hour later and attacked Wilson, who they found on a bench in the Garfield Park pavilion. He survived but suffered debilitating injuries.