Trial of Former San Dieguito High Athlete : Victim Describes Beating in Parking Lot

A weeping Craig Beveridge testified Thursday how he and his girlfriend were beaten up--allegedly by six San Dieguito Union High School students--in a supermarket parking lot in La Costa.

“I went down and I was bleeding from the nose,” said the 20-year-old Palomar College sophomore. “I felt like I was going out. I started to ask myself questions like, ‘What am I doing here? Why is this happening?’ ”

Beveridge said his girlfriend, Holly Mayeux, 17, knew two of the attackers from school and yelled at them, “You’re all going to jail for this. I know you and you.”

Beveridge was the first witness in the misdemeanor battery trial in Vista Municipal Court for Erik Heipt, 19, a June graduate of San Dieguito High and a star wrestler.

“We will prove that Erik Heipt was a principle (attacker) . . . in the battery of Craig Beveridge . . . who was kicked, beaten and roughly jumped,” Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian Michaels told the jury.

Beveridge, 6-foot and 185 pounds, broke into tears as defense attorney Thomas Warwick asked for a blow-by-blow description of the fight at the Von’s supermarket parking lot on April 26.

Beveridge said his girlfriend had met him about midnight after he finished work at an Italian restaurant in Encinitas. The two drove in separate cars toward his house.

On the way home, Beveridge said his girlfriend passed a slow-moving car driven by Heipt, who allegedly tried to run her off the road, stuck his face out the window and made an obscene gesture.

“I was upset at what happened, so I made the decision to follow them,” Beveridge said. The group ended up in the Von’s parking lot where Beveridge said the six continued to exchange dirty words, formed a semi-circle around him, and shoved him back and forth as one youth threatened to kill him.

“I didn’t get in any punches, but I would have liked to,” Beveridge said.

The bailiff passed Beveridge a box of tissues and a glass of water as he told the jury that he was down on all fours and helpless as he was kicked in the head and ribs. Mayeux, who Beveridge said was being beaten up nearby, was “screaming bloody murder.”

“I heard (her) yelling, ‘You can’t hit a girl! You can’t hit a girl!’ ” Beveridge said.