photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Shaun Donovan Bernie, center, appears at his preliminary hearing Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, with attorneys Sam Allison-Natale, left, and Jennifer Amyx in Douglas County District Court.

A defendant accused of viciously attacking a homeless man in downtown Lawrence has been ordered to stand trial, although plea negotiations are underway.

The 49-year-old man testified that the defendant, Shaun Donovan Bernie, 33, attacked him from behind last fall, causing significant injuries to his head and disfiguring his hand.

The man testified that Bernie, who was also homeless at the time, would regularly bully him and threaten to physically assault him during the few weeks he had known him. On the night of Oct. 20, the man said he was in the alleyway west of the 800 block of Massachusetts Street with three friends, two of whom were “passed out drunk” in a store’s doorway. He and the other friend were talking — “just chilling” — when he said Bernie approached, bullied him, then departed. But about 15 minutes later Bernie came back, this time from behind, and “I felt a crack on my head.” The man said Bernie held him by his hood, and as the man turned to face him, Bernie struck him again on the head and on his hand, which he had raised to shield his eyes.

He said the head injuries resulted in a serious concussion, a bone bruise and required a number of staples and stitches, which left scars. Showing the court a crooked, unbendable index finger, he said the finger had been broken in two places and the damage was so severe that he would never be able to make a fist with that hand absent surgery.

Bernie was originally charged with a level 7 aggravated battery, with a weapon described as a “wooden stick.” However, prosecutors amended the complaint to a more severe level 4 in light of the man’s injuries. Judge Amy Hanley ordered Bernie to stand trial on the more severe count, but also noted that the parties had indicated that they anticipated a plea deal in the matter, and she scheduled a Jan. 27 hearing for that purpose.

The injured man was the only person to testify at Tuesday’s hearing. Bernie’s defense attorney, Jennifer Amyx, sought to discredit the man by eliciting testimony that he was drunk that night and hence might have an impaired memory — he had admitted he might have been “mildly intoxicated” and smoking weed at the time, but he was adamant that he had not been an aggressor and had not used racial slurs against Bernie, as Amyx had suggested.

He said he might have been calling Bernie names at the hospital “because I was really pissed” and “loopy” from a bad concussion.

“I was bleeding out of my head in several places,” he said. “I don’t know what I was saying.”

Bernie has multiple felony convictions, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections, including for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Douglas County in 2023 and theft and burglary in Franklin County in 2010. He also is currently facing a charge of misdemeanor battery in Douglas County, which allegedly occurred three weeks prior to the felony aggravated battery charge.