The Long Beach City Prosecutor’s Office announced last week that a 24 year-old Harbor City gang member arrested in May for beating up his girlfriend then leaving her at a gas station was found guilty of the crime and sentenced one year in jail, the maximum punishment for misdemeanor battery.
Police say that on the morning of May 19, Jose Meza got into a verbal argument with his girlfriend at a party in Long Beach, during which he punched her multiple times in the face until she fell to the ground. The two left the party together and headed towards Harbor City, but before they got there, Meza pulled over at a gas station in Wilmington and told the victim to get out and walk home.
Disoriented, the victim used the phone of a nearby resident to call a friend, who took her to a nearby hospital. She was treated for lacerations to her hand and a contusion to her right jaw.
The victim did not cooperate with police and did not show up for the trial, which took four days. The jury, however, convicted Meza of the crime and Judge Laura Laesecke imposed the maximum sentence allowed.
A press release on the outcome says that although Meza was sentenced to one year in County jail it is unclear how much of that time he will spend behind bars. Due to prison realignment, many of those incarcerated serve only a fraction of their sentence.