By Sophia Tarantino & Stewart Lucas
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Deputy Public Defender Alexandra Pray and Deputy District Attorney Henderson faced off Friday in a preliminary hearing for the accused, in custody and charged with assault with a deadly weapon—not a firearm, but allegedly scissors—and assault with force likely to commit great bodily injury.
Officer Clarens Caine was the only witness, and testified he responded to a 911 call from Market and 4th Street on June 22 to find the accused detained by security and the alleged victim sitting on the sidewalk bleeding.
Officer Caine spoke with the alleged victim who stated that they asked the accused to leave the front of a building. After the man allegedly threw ice cream at the victim, they walked away.
However, the accused returned as the alleged victim walked away and punched them several times in the head with a closed fist.
The only eyewitness to this attack was across the street, telling Officer Caine that the accused threw one punch and slashed the alleged victim’s face approximately four times with a metal object.
The incident stopped after a group of onlookers, including the eyewitness, physically detained the accused.
Silver-colored rounded metal scissors were found near the location where the accused was detained. There is no evidence as to how the scissors got there.
However, Officer Caine also testified that the lacerations seen on the alleged victim’s face could have been caused by a ring with sharp edges that the accused had been wearing on his pinky finger. Neither the scissors nor the ring had visible blood on them, he said.
Officer Caine also observed camera footage from an intersection of 4th Street and Market that shows the accused punching the alleged victim five times, resulting in the victim falling down. The video showed the accused grabbing the victim with his left hand, and striking with his right.
PD Pray closed with urging the court to drop the first charge because of the ambiguity surrounding how the lacerations were produced and arguing that neither scissors nor a ring are considered deadly weapons.
However, Judge Chun found the prosecution had met its burden for both charges and the enhancement charge of “great bodily injury” on the first count, and said the case was moving to the trial stage.
