A homeless man who randomly attacked people with a screwdriver in Belmont Shore has been sentenced to seven years in state prison.
The unprovoked attacks at a popular park and shopping district shook the neighborhood on May 30, 2023. The attacks injured four people — including a grandfather holding his 2-year-old grandson and a man waiting outside a restaurant while applying for a job — and ended when a police officer shot and wounded the suspect, Mario Najara, as he tried to force his way into a home on East Livingston Drive.
Najara, 33, was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty to two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. As a result of his plea, the court dismissed two additional counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count each of robbery, resisting a peace officer and making criminal threats. If he’d been convicted on all counts, he could have faced between 11 and 70 years in prison, according to prosecutors.
Police said Najara was homeless at the time of his crimes. Court records show he was born in Hawthorne but had spent more than 10 years living in Tijuana, Mexico, before returning to the Los Angeles area shortly before the incident.
He told mental health evaluators he was working as a janitor at SoFi Stadium shortly before the incident and had a history of substance abuse. When asked, Najara denied using methamphetamine the day of the crimes.
He told mental health evaluators he remembered searching for food in a trash can and finding a burger and onion rings as a “random couple” walked by.
Shortly before 11:55 a.m. on May 30, 2023, police received the first of several 911 calls reporting the slew of assaults from a screwdriver-wielding man.
The first caller described a scene that surveillance cameras also captured: Najara, holding a screwdriver, walked up to a man waiting outside the Super Mex restaurant on Second Street and, unprompted, stabbed him in the neck with the screwdriver, according to the District Attorney’s office.
At a preliminary hearing, prosecutors alleged Najara then told the victim, “Do you want more?” before walking away.
The victim was taken to a hospital but did not require stitches or surgery for the wound.
Another victim told investigators that Najara had stabbed him “10 to 15 times” while he was holding his grandson at nearby Livingston Park, according to court records.
The grandfather said he suffered wounds to his face, right forearm, both legs and his left hand. The child fell to the ground and got a cut on his lip.
A man and woman whom Najara also assaulted at the park were treated for minor injuries, including a cut to the neck and facial contusions from being punched.
After his arrest, Najara was examined by three separate court-approved mental health evaluators. After all three deemed him unfit to stand trial, Najara was sent to a state mental hospital last August.
Records show Najara was diagnosed with Stimulant Use Disorder after he told them he experienced “auditory hallucinations, paranoia and aggression that may be associated with his history of methamphetamine [use].”
Following nearly three weeks of treatment, he was evaluated two more times and was deemed fit to stand trial in mid-December.
Court records show Najara was given credit for slightly more than two and a half years in custody while awaiting trial, which will shorten Monday’s sentence.
Najara is due back in court in October for a restitution hearing.