Trio accused of assault with rocks ordered to trial
UPDATE:
Three young men who allegedly took part in a rock-throwing assault outside a Palm Desert house party, leaving a young man in a coma, must stand trial on assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy charges, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Miguel Angel Ramirez, 20, Nickolas Hernandez, 19, and Luis Becerra- Gomez, 19, are accused in the Aug. 14, 2016, assault on Trey O’Connor, which occurred outside a house party within a Palm Desert gated community at 111 Azzuro Drive.
The trio allegedly hatched the plan to attack O’Connor and other partygoers with rocks as retaliation for rocks and beer cans thrown at Becerra- Gomez’s pickup truck.
A fourth suspect, who was underage during the time of the alleged assault, is accused of throwing the rock that caused O’Connor’s serious injuries.
At one point, he was going to be tried as an adult along with his co- defendants, but his case has since been transferred to juvenile court.
According to a declaration in support of an arrest warrant, the defendants left the party in Becerra-Gomez’s pickup truck about 2:30 a.m. but could not leave the premises because the exit gate was locked.
Ramirez allegedly threw a water bottle at a group of partygoers as they left, and in retaliation, the group, which included O’Connor, threw beer cans and rocks at Becerra-Gomez’s truck, denting it and shattering one of its mirrors, according to the document.
The defendants then allegedly drove to another part of the community and planned their return attack. Ramirez allegedly hatched the plan to reciprocate by collecting two large rocks, which he gave to Hernandez and the minor suspect.
The group made a second pass by the house in Becerra-Gomez’s truck, and Hernandez and the minor threw the rocks, one of which struck O’Connor in the head, according to the declaration, which alleges that all four defendants “made admissions to their respective involvement in the assault of O’Connor.”
O’Connor, who suffered brain bleeding and multiple skull fractures, was at one point in a medically induced coma after undergoing emergency brain surgery but has since been released from the hospital.
Defense attorneys for the trio put forth competing theories during the three-day preliminary hearing as to what caused O’Connor’s injuries.
Melanie Roe, Hernandez’s attorney, and Joseph Cavanaugh, Ramirez’s attorney, asserted that O’Connor must have been struck by Becerra-Gomez’s truck. Both attorneys emphasized various witness accounts that O’Connor had been struck by the pickup truck, as opposed to a dearth of eyewitness accounts supporting that a rock had been thrown from the truck.
Dean Brewer, a former police officer, also testified Wednesday as a defense expert on traffic collision reconstruction.
Brewer stated that he believed O’Connor’s was most likely struck by the truck’s side mirror as he was running away from the vehicle. Brewer said that glass fragments found inside the truck were more likely caused by an impact with a “soft object” — O’Connor’s head — rather than a rock, which Brewer said would scatter the mirror’s glass outside of the vehicle.
Mario Rodriguez, Becerra-Gomez’s attorney, argued that the mirror was already broken prior to O’Connor’s injuries, as the damage to the truck was the entire reason for returning to the Azzuro Drive address.
Rodriguez opined that it was more likely that a rock injured O’Connor, either from the truck’s passengers or the crowd of partygoers gathered along the street.
“It was a very chaotic situation, after a party” Rodriguez said. “A lot of witnesses had been drinking. Young people who had been drinking. So, it’s difficult to re-construct what was the actual cause of the injury.”
Rodriguez refuted the claim of Becerra-Gomez hitting O’Connor with his truck.
“That’s unusual, because the only part of the victim’s body that was injured was his head,” Rodriguez said. “So, you’d think that if a truck strikes you, you would suffer injuries in other parts of your body.”
Deputy District Attorney Antonio Fimbres also questioned the lack of “biological material” — skin, hair, blood, etc. — on the truck, which he said should have been present in some amount had O’Connor been hit by the truck.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge John G. Evans ruled that there was enough evidence to hold the defendants to answer and ordered them to return to court Oct. 18 for a post-preliminary hearing arraignment.
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Three young men who allegedly took part in a rock-throwing assault outside a Palm Desert house party, leaving a young man comatose, face possible assault with a deadly weapon charges, though some of the defense attorneys asserted today that the victim was struck by a pickup truck, rather than rocks.
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{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/915650187942490112″,”author_name”:”Jeremy Chen”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;&#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/TreyCase?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#TreyCase&#lt;/a&#gt;: Expert witness gives three scnearios for Trey’s injury. 1. Caused by the mirror. 2. ricochet from rock 3. direct hit from rock.&#lt;/p&#gt;– Jeremy Chen (@JeremyChenKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/915650187942490112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;October 4, 2017&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/915649496788299776″,”author_name”:”Jeremy Chen”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;&#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/TreyCase?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#TreyCase&#lt;/a&#gt;: Prosecution questioning expert witness on witness reports that mirror was already broken. Less likely he was injured by mirror.&#lt;/p&#gt;– Jeremy Chen (@JeremyChenKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/915649496788299776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;October 4, 2017&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/915634172982468608″,”author_name”:”Jeremy Chen”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;&#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/TreyCase?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#TreyCase&#lt;/a&#gt;: Expert witness says he believes Trey’s head injury came from side mirror of pickup rather than rock.&#lt;/p&#gt;– Jeremy Chen (@JeremyChenKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/915634172982468608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;October 4, 2017&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/915629745424834560″,”author_name”:”Jeremy Chen”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;&#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/TreyCase?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#TreyCase&#lt;/a&#gt;: Defense scrutinizing the damage on right side mirror of pickup truck.&#lt;/p&#gt;– Jeremy Chen (@JeremyChenKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/915629745424834560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;October 4, 2017&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/915623736165900288″,”author_name”:”Jeremy Chen”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;&#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/TreyCase?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#TreyCase&#lt;/a&#gt;: Defense has called an expert witness for traffic collision reconstruction, examined the collision in the case.&#lt;/p&#gt;– Jeremy Chen (@JeremyChenKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/915623736165900288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;October 4, 2017&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/915616457488076800″,”author_name”:”Jeremy Chen”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;&#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/TreyCase?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#TreyCase&#lt;/a&#gt;: Defense attorneys are questioning a &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/RSO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@RSO&#lt;/a&#gt; deputy that responded to the Trey O’Connor assault and looking at his witness reports.&#lt;/p&#gt;– Jeremy Chen (@JeremyChenKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/915616457488076800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;October 4, 2017&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
Miguel Angel Ramirez, 20, Nickolas Hernandez, 19, and Luis Becerra- Gomez, 19, are accused in the Aug. 14, 2016, assault on Trey O’Connor, which occurred outside a house party within a Palm Desert gated community at 111 Azzuro Drive.
Read: 4 suspects charged in assault with deadly weapon case
The suspects potentially face charges of assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit a crime after allegedly hatching the plan to attack O’Connor and other partygoers with rocks as retaliation for rocks and beer cans thrown at Becerra-Gomez’s pickup truck.
A fourth suspect, who was underage during the time of the alleged assault, is accused of throwing the rock that caused O’Connor’s serious injuries.
At one point, he was going to be tried as an adult along with his co-defendants, but his case has since been transferred to juvenile court.
EXCLUSIVE: Mark Geragos to represent victim of alleged rock throwing assault
According to a declaration in support of an arrest warrant, the defendants left the party in Becerra-Gomez’s pickup truck about 2:30 a.m. but could not leave the premises because the exit gate was locked.
Ramirez allegedly threw a water bottle at a group of partygoers as they left, and in retaliation, the group, which included O’Connor, threw beer cans and rocks at Becerra-Gomez’s truck, denting it and shattering one of its mirrors, according to the document.
The defendants then allegedly drove to another part of the community and planned their return attack. Ramirez allegedly hatched the plan to reciprocate by collecting two large rocks, which he gave to Hernandez and the minor suspect.
The group made a second pass by the house in Becerra’s truck, and Hernandez and the minor threw the rocks, one of which struck O’Connor in the head, according to the declaration, which alleges that all four defendants “made admissions to their respective involvement in the assault of O’Connor.”
Attorneys for Hernandez and Ramirez repeatedly questioned law enforcement witnesses Monday regarding several party guests who said that O’ Connor had been struck by the truck while standing in the middle of the street. Doctors who examined O’Connor also could not conclusively pin down the mechanism that caused his injuries, which included brain bleeding and multiple skull fractures.
O’Connor was at one point in a medically induced coma after undergoing emergency brain surgery but has since been released from the hospital.
Becerra-Gomez’s attorney, Mario Rodriguez, said the damage to the truck wasn’t consistent with the theory that O’Connor was hit by the side mirror.
Rodriguez said outside the courthouse that it made more sense that O’Connor was struck by a rock, though he could not say who may have thrown the rock that ultimately caused O’Connor’s injuries.
The preliminary hearing will continue Wednesday morning with further testimony.
