WHITTIER : Teamster Pleads Not Guilty to Attempted Murder

A Teamsters Union picket pleaded not guilty Tuesday to attempted premeditated murder for allegedly using a metal pipe to beat an independent trucker who crossed a Teamsters picket line in Pico Rivera.

“This goes well beyond the usual sort of anger you see in these strikes,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Chrystie said. “Here a man was beaten horribly.”

Jesus (Jesse) Manuel Acuna, 37, was arraigned in Whittier Municipal Court on one count of attempted willful, deliberate, premeditated murder for Friday’s beating of 55-year-old Glen Yeatts.

Acuna, who was arrested soon after the attack at Telegraph Road and Paramount Boulevard, is also accused of causing great bodily injury with a deadly weapon. Municipal Judge Larry Knupp set Acuna’s bail at $500,000. If convicted, the defendant faces life in prison.

According to prosecutors, Yeatts pulled his tractor-trailer rig into a truck yard near where the attack occurred, crossing a Teamsters picket line. He later pulled the truck back out through the line and stopped for a traffic signal nearby.

Acuna allegedly pulled a pin that separated the tractor cab from the trailer of Yeatts’ rig. When the man got out to see what was wrong, he was dazed with a blow to his head by a rock, then beaten with a two-foot metal pipe that truckers use to check tires, Chrystie said. Yeatts’ elbow was shattered when he put up his arm to deflect the blows. He is in stable condition.