‘He wants blood’: Woman tells of intruder beating her at her Newport Beach home
An Anaheim man pleaded not guilty Monday to five felony charges in connection with an assault on a woman inside her Newport Beach condominium last week.
Orange County prosecutors charged Jesus Lemus Gonzales, 51, with attempted murder, assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, first-degree burglary, false imprisonment and kidnapping. He also is facing three felony sentencing enhancements of inflicting great bodily injury, according to Orange County Superior Court records.
County jail records list Gonzales’ occupation as a butcher.
The woman, a 36-year-old business owner, had just flown into John Wayne Airport the morning of Dec. 15 when she hailed an Uber ride and headed to the condominium that she shares with a friend in the 200 block of Villa Point.
She had made plans to see “A Christmas Carol” that night at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, so instead of heading to her office from the airport, she decided to make a protein shake and change clothes at home first.
“My flight was an hour late,” the woman, who asked not be identified by name, said in an interview Tuesday. “I decided I should just change into my fancy outfit so I could go to the play straight from work.
“Had my flight been on time, I don’t think any of this would have ever happened.”
She was changing in her bedroom when she heard a loud thud that she thought was a car hitting something outside. But when she heard a louder bang at the front door, she went to the entryway to investigate.
She found a man she had never seen before standing in the doorway holding a hunk of wood on his shoulder like a baseball bat. The man, who she estimated weighed 210 pounds, had barreled through the locked door, she said.
“I had one pant leg on, and when I saw him, I bent down to put the other pant leg on because my first thought was rape and I wanted my clothes on,” she said. “I’m leaning down to put my pant leg on and that’s when he pummeled me in the back with the 2-by-4 and knocked me on the ground.”
She said she got up and the man hit her with the wood on the arms, head, face and right leg.
The swelling on her face has gone down, but her bottom lip and her chin and arms are still bruised. Her leg is still sore, and she limps slightly as she walks.
“I was just yelling ‘Help me’ at the top of my lungs,” she said. “I remember at one point he started mocking me, mocking my screams.”
She asked him if he wanted money, and for a moment he stopped hitting her, she said.
“He stopped for a split second and he said ‘Money?’ and then he looked at me with these demonic eyes and started pummeling me again,” she said. “That’s when I was like, ‘He doesn’t want money, he wants blood.’ He was on a manhunt.”
The two tussled for what she estimated was five minutes before she was able to knock the wood out of his hands. She said he tried to strangle her, but in what she described as a Incredible Hulk-like moment, she pushed him off her and made her way toward the door. He grabbed her by the hair, ripping out chunks of her brown locks, she said.
She made it outside, and for reasons she can’t explain, the man didn’t follow her.
A neighbor who heard her screams was nearby in a car with a 911 operator on the line when the woman ran up and pounded on the window. The two drove to the front of the gated complex to let police in.
Gonzales was arrested inside the condominium, police said.
The woman was taken to Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, where she was treated for her injuries and released the following day.
Police said Gonzales is suspected of breaking into two other condominiums before entering the woman’s home. It doesn’t appear anything was stolen from any of the residences, police said.
“It scares me that this happened in such a safe community,” the woman said. “I just want people to know that this can happen anywhere.”
Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
