Man pleads guilty to Palm Springs road rage incident

A Cathedral City man who beat a driver unconscious in a road-rage-fueled assault in Palm Springs pleaded guilty today to assault with a deadly weapon and was immediately sentenced to five years in state prison.
Harvey Seno Lozada, 48, entered his plea this afternoon during his scheduled preliminary hearing. A charge of aggravated mayhem was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
Police say Lozada assaulted another motorist around 10 a.m. June 30, shortly after he and the victim were swerving around each other while driving in Palm Springs.
The victim eventually pulled into a parking lot in the 2100 block of East Tahquitz Canyon Way, where Lozada got out of his car and approached the victim with “a long metal object,” said Sgt. William Hutchinson.
Lozada then struck the victim in the head with the object, causing the motorist to lose consciousness, Hutchinson said. Witnesses reported seeing Lozada walking calmly from the scene, getting into his car and driving away.
A cell phone at the scene and photographs discovered during a subsequent investigation led detectives to identify Lozada as the suspect.
Palm Springs detectives served a search warrant July 7 at Lozada’s Cathedral City home and arrested him.
He has no other felony convictions in Riverside County, according to court records.