Two more suspects surrender in case of injured WSU professor

SEATTLE -- Two more men suspected of having been at a fight that left WSU teacher David Warner seriously injured surrendered to police in Pullman Friday.

Robert Bean, 22, of Mukilteo, and John "Matt" Cabanos-Soriano, 22, of Everett, made their first appearance in front of a Whitman County judge Friday and were released without bail.

They join two others -- Joshua Nantz, 23, and Madeline Fouts, 21 – who have been arrested  in connection with a fight that left Warner hospitalized with serious injuries.

The fight wasn't caught on surveillance cameras, but police said a surveillance video shows the suspects leaving the scene immediately afterward. Once police released the video, tips started pouring in.

And that's when an anonymous letter identified Fouts in the surveillance video, which spurred police to connect her to Nantz, Cabanos-Soriano and Bean.

“We now have been able to identify all of the principal parties involved, and that was a huge step forward in the investigation,” Whitman County prosecutor Bill Druffel  said. “And when we made that contact through testimony of some of the suspects themselves, and people close to those individuals, we`ve been able to get a better idea, at least from their standpoint, about what happened that night.”

Warner and a friend got into a verbal altercation with college-age students March 30 at a Pullman bar that escalated outside. Warner allegedly stepped in to prevent a fight between his friend and the students when he was hit. Warner has been hospitalized since the fight; his friends are cautiously optimistic about his recovery.

It will be up to the prosecutor to determine what charges the four will ultimately face.