brun527

SoCalHoops College News Report

Brunner: Charged With Attempted
Murder of Mike Miller--(May 27, 1998)

This is starting to sound like a very bad joke. Or a really bad nightmare. Or both. Espn is now reporting that the Los Angeles District Attorney has charged ex-Georgetown and Fresno State basketball player Kenny Brunner with one count of first-degree attempted murder and one count of second-degree robbery. Brunner is still being held on more than a half-million dollar bail, so there's probably not much chance that he'll be out any time soon.

A conviction on the charge of attempted first-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life.

Brunner was arrested early Friday morning for investigation of armed robbery. He allegedly robbed Michael Miller, the head basketball coach at Los Angeles City College. Miller told police that Brunner entered his office, stuck a chrome-plated pistol in his chest, robbed him of $1,500 and, while doing so, actually pulled the trigger of the gun, which failed to fire. Either it wasn't loaded or it was a cheap gun and jammed. If it's the latter, then it would definitely be attempted murder; if the former, it might only be assualt with a deadly weapon, but then we don't pretend to be criminal attorneys.

The freshman point guard transferred from Georgetown to Fresno State last season. He was suspended from the Bulldogs following his March 17 arrest and in April applied for early entry to the June 24 NBA draft.

Brunner and Fresno State teammate Avondre Jones pleaded innocent on April 16 in Fresno County Municipal Court to assault and other crimes. Prosecutors in that case contend the men assaulted Collin DeForrest with a samurai sword and robbed him of cash and a camera. Jones has been removed from the FSU team, and there's not much chance that Kenny will be playing ball for any academic institution this fall.

We'll try to find out more and report it as soon as we can.