2nd Man Arrested in Attack on Migrants

A second man has been arrested in connection with the baseball bat beating of three Latino migrants in Alpine, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said Friday.

Charles Edward Nocita, 28, of El Cajon allegedly yelled at the victims in Spanish before he beat them at the creek-bed migrant encampment where they had been sleeping, spokesman Dan Greenblat said.

The Oct. 1 bat attack was meant as retaliation for the reported rape of a white woman in the area a week earlier.

Nocita, who was taken into custody Thursday, has been charged with battery and assault with a deadly weapon. The assault was designated a hate crime, which will increase his sentence if convicted.

Nocita’s bail has been set at $10,000. He is also being held on a possible parole violation, Greenblat said.

Two other men have been charged and arrest warrants have been issued for several others suspected in the beatings. Ronald Aishman, 26, of Spring Valley was arrested Oct. 15 and pleaded not guilty Monday to three counts of battery and three counts of assault with a deadly weapon. His bail has been set at $200,000.

Charges also have been filed against Ronald Inman, 22, of El Cajon, who is not yet in custody, Deputy Dist. Atty. Luis Aragon said Thursday.

Both face a longer sentence if convicted of committing a hate crime and acting in concert, Aragon said.

The district attorney’s office has decided not to prosecute an alleged rape of a white woman that led to the bat attack.

Tensions over the presence of the day laborers in the East San Diego County town boiled over after the purported rape and culminated in the bat attack. The Sheriff’s Department responded by dispatching extra teams of detectives to Alpine to investigate the attack and rape report, and interviewed dozens of people in the United States and Mexico, Roache said.

“The rest of the (arrest warrants) out there, we’re still working on. We’re pressing forward,” Greenblat said Friday.

He added that the rape investigation has not been closed, but the case is not being prosecuted at this time because the victim’s account differs dramatically from those of witnesses and suspects.