Former West Virginia student dies, 10 years after beating

ASHBURN, Va. – A former West Virginia University student has died, a decade after he was beaten into a vegetative state.

News outlets report 29-year-old Ryan Diviney was with his family at their West Virginia cabin for the holiday weekend when he began struggling to breathe. Ken Diviney said his son died Saturday as they sped to a hospital in Winchester, Virginia.

Authorities have said Ryan Diviney and a friend got into an argument with a group of men outside a convenience store in Morgantown, West Virginia, in 2009. Fellow WVU student Jonathan May then punched Ryan Diviney, sending him tumbling to the ground where Austin Vantrease kicked him in the head. May was sentenced to a year in prison. Vantrease was paroled in 2014.