Baseball Bat Murder: Son Paroled, Dad's Bail Cut In Half

ROMEOVILLE, IL — Nearly five years after they were accused of beating a neighbor to death with a baseball bat, a Romeoville father and son could soon both be free. Adam Ballard was only 15 when he and his father Mark were charged in the murder of 55-year-old Richard Pollack after he accused them of burglarizing his car.

Adam, who pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder in March, netting a 10-year sentence, is already free after serving nearly half of it. That's because he received credit for time served first at the River Valley Juvenile Detention Center and then at the Will County jail, where he was sent on his 18th birthday. He was briefly shipped to Stateville, Illinois Department of Corrections records show, but released on June 7. He'll be on probation until 2022.

His father, Mark Ballard, 47, remains at the Will County jail, but on July 3, Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak granted his motion for a bond reduction, cutting it in half from $5 million to $2.5 million. He would need to post 10 percent, or $250,000, to be released.

Ballard's attorney argued June 26 that his bond should be reduced since he didn't actually hit Pollack with the bat himself, the Herald-News reported.

A status hearing in the older Ballard's case is set for Aug. 5.

Baseball bat attack

In 2014, Romeoville police said they responded at around 2 a.m. Aug. 10 to a report of a disturbance outside Pollack's Tallman Avenue home involving several subjects armed with baseball bats. Officers who arrived on the scene found Pollack critically injured. He was taken to Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police said the attack stemmed from accusations that Adam and Mark Ballard burglarized Pollack's vehicle several days earlier

The alleged burglary was never reported to police, and none of the other individuals who were allegedly present for the Aug. 10 baseball bat attack were charged.

Trial testimony

In March, Pollack's son, Kyle, testified during Adam Ballard's murder trial, saying that the Ballards confronted him and his father hours before the murder.

"Adam (was) standing there looking at me. They were just getting closer and closer … angrier and angrier," Kyle Pollack testified.

Kyle Pollack said he took off his shirt and removed his glasses, and he and Adam Ballard fought for a while, tumbling around the ground at times. Another neighbor put Mark Ballard "into a chokehold," he testified.

Eventually, the fist fighting came to an end. Kyle Pollack testified he gave the defendant back his hat, his cellphone and wallet. Father and son "started walking down the driveway in anger," he testified. "Mark said, 'We'll be back! We'll be back!"

At around 2 a.m., the Pollacks were in their living room when they saw the lights of a car pulling up in front of the house.

"We heard car doors. My father looked out the front window. (He) seen Mark, Adam and a couple other people," Kyle testified, saying he, his brother and his father grabbed baseball bats and went outside, with one goal: "Not trying to get super hurt." The Ballards also had baseball bats, he testified.

Kyle Pollack said a "brawl" broke out, and at one point during the melee, he "blacked out." By the time he woke up, Pollack said he was on the other side of the street with someone on top of him, beating him with his fists.

Kyle Pollack testified he remembered opening his eyes, "seeing my dad laying in the street." The 55-year-old Richard Pollack was on the ground, laying near the sewer cap, not moving.

"Adam, he had a bat," Pollack said. "He hit (my dad) in the head two times. It was a lot of force."