By Alana Bleimann and Zahra Abbas
SACRAMENTO – Defendant Luqman Mohammad Wasi may have—as he is charged—dragged ex-girlfriend along the ground with a car, causing eye and other injuries, but he should only be tried for assault with a deadly weapon, not infliction of great bodily injury, a court ruled here in Sacramento County Superior Court Friday.
Wasi is now set to go to trial after car-jacking his ex-girlfriend’s car and attempting to drive away as she clung to the steering wheel, dragging here along the pavement.
In October of last year, Officer Alexander Giy received a call for a domestic violence incident at a local liquor store, and, as he approached, he noticed “the victim was sitting on the sidewalk, one of her eyes was swollen shut, and she had dried blood on her face.”
Additionally, she had “scrapes on her knees and elbows” and they “were round in shape and one inch in diameter,” according to Giy.
The victim, said Giy, stated that as she was “on her way to a modeling show downtown,” stopped at a liquor store in order to purchase a pack of cigarettes and coincidentally ran into her ex-boyfriend, the defendant.
Prior to the violence outside the liquor store, there was a domestic violence incident between the two individuals the summer before, in 2009, she told Giy, adding that the defendant punched her in the face, causing the swollen eye that was later reported as a orbital floor fracture.
“She was punched at least three times with a closed fist in the face and she couldn’t remember what happened after that,” Giy said, adding that she told him she “remembers that Wasi was 
sitting in the driver’s seat of her vehicle” and that she “was afraid he was going to leave in her vehicle.”
Then, “the driver’s side door was open so she [the victim] grabbed onto the wheel to prevent Mr. Wasi from leaving in her vehicle,” according to Giy, who said the victim reported she was hanging onto the steering wheel the defendant was sitting in the driver’s seat.
“Mr. Wasi drove back and forth in the parking lot for about 15-20 feet as she was holding onto the steering wheel,” Giy explained, noting the victim was dragged along the pavement five to eight times, resulting in the scraped knees and elbows.
After the victim fell from her grasp on the wheel, the defendant drove off in her vehicle.
“The man from the liquor store ran out and saw what was going on,” Giy said, noting the store owner said that “the man began driving back and forth in the parking lot dragging the woman….and was scared for the woman’s welfare and her safety thinking that she was going to get run over and possibly killed.”
This is when the store owner attempted to grab the defendant and pull him out of the vehicle but was unable to do so, testified Giy, and like the female victim, the store owner “fell and was dragged…for about five feet.”
During Deputy District Attorney Mitch Miller’s closing arguments, he stated that he “believes the defendant punched the victim in hopes to disorient her, grab the keys and got into her vehicle.”
Assistant Public Defender Gregory Parfitt argued that a fractured bone is only a minor injury, so there was no indication of great bodily injuries, adding the “puffy, swollen” eye and the fracture is “not a great bodily injury” because he has “common sense, your Honor.”
Parfitt continued to argue that NFL players have fractured their thumbs, and they still end up back on the field the following week, again suggesting “a mere fact of a fractured bone…is a minor injury.”
In DDA Miller’s argument, he says, “[being dragged] is a way people can be killed, let alone seriously injured,” noting that at the time of the incident, there was a pressing risk that the victim’s limb could have easily gone under the tire.
The judge agreed the car can be used as a deadly weapon, but did not agree that any great bodily injury was inflicted, explaining that in most cases with a vehicle as a deadly weapon, it is more “projectile” and with “intent” of someone being under the wheel.
The court trial on the deadly weapon charge was set for early March of this year.
Alana Bleimann is a junior at the University of San Francisco majoring in Sociology with a minor in Criminal Justice Studies. She is from Raleigh, 
North Carolina.
Zahra Abbas is a 3rd year Political Science major and Film minor at UC Davis. She is from San Jose, California.
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