San Francisco man left with broken skull, brain injury fighting release of his alleged assailant

SAN FRANCISCO – Amil Ojea was about to go his certification with tech large Salesforce over the summer season. It was going assist the Military veteran and San Francisco resident transition from his decades-long profession as a bartender to one thing extra secure.

However an assault final 12 months close to his house within the metropolis’s Decrease Nob Hill neighborhood left him with extreme head accidents – together with a traumatic mind harm – which have derailed his life. 

The alleged assailant within the case, Hasira Sutton, 45, is in jail dealing with felony prices of assault and battery, inflicting nice bodily harm. However Ojea and different residents alongside Submit Road say they assault ought to have been prevented. 

They’ve complained to town and police lengthy earlier than the June 14 episode about Sutton’s menacing and typically violent conduct, however they are saying they metropolis by no means took significant steps to intervene. 

On Friday, Sutton will go earlier than a choose, in search of to have his case diverted primarily based on his psychological well being points. 

Ojea stated he shall be in courtroom talking out in opposition to his launch. 

“He’s finished this quite a few instances to different folks and so they can’t simply let him again out,” Ojea stated. “It simply doesn’t make sense.”

Data present Sutton has an extended historical past of brushes with the regulation, together with three felony strikes on his report. 

He was arrested in 2019 on suspicion of an unprovoked stabbing at fifth and Market streets. Data present the earlier district lawyer didn’t file prices within the case. 

Court docket paperwork present neighbors alongside the block the place he slept at Submit and Taylor streets have lengthy complained about him.

“Neighbors wrote over 50 letters expressing their experiences with Defendant over the pas few years,” Assistant District Lawyer Edward Mario wrote in a courtroom movement opposing Sutton’s launch on pretrial diversion.

Sam Askendafi owns a liquor retailer on the nook the place the assault occurred. He stated he’s known as police on Sutton greater than 20 instances beforehand. 

“Each restaurant, each neighbor — the entire neighborhood — they complain about him,” he stated. 

Ojea stated he nonetheless has bother remembering precisely what befell the evening of the assault, however video of the incident was reviewed by regulation enforcement, who detailed the account in courtroom papers. 

Mario wrote that it confirmed Ojea strolling previous Sutton shortly earlier than midnight and the 2 “seem to interact in a dialogue forwards and backwards.”

Authorities stated Sutton then punched Ojea, who collapsed unconscious. 

MORE: Household mourns postal employee stabbed to loss of life in Oakland whereas strolling dwelling

That’s when Sutton “will get on prime of Ojea, who’s now not shifting, and violently unleashes roughly 10 extra punches on Ojea’s immobile physique,” Mario wrote. 

Sutton then violently shook Ojea, yelled at his immobile physique, and dragged him to a light-weight put up the place he hit him a number of instances, Mario stated. 

Ojea stated he got here to has responding officers propped him up, telling him he’d been assaulted. 

Sutton’s public defender disputed regulation enforcement and Ojea’s report of the encounter.

“”This was not an unprovoked assault,” Deputy Public Defender Nadia Iqbal stated in an announcement to KTVU. “The reality will come to gentle in courtroom by way of video proof exhibiting that the alleged sufferer instigated the incident as he started verbally harassing and standing over Mr. Sutton who was asleep on the sidewalk. 

She stated that “Mr. Sutton made a number of makes an attempt to take away himself from this aggressive state of affairs earlier than it escalated, but he is the one who’s been in jail for the previous seven months awaiting trial. That is one more instance of how susceptible unhoused individuals are in our metropolis and sometimes fall sufferer to false narratives and criminalization.” 

For the reason that assault, Ojea has been hospitalized a number of instances. He had mind surgical procedure, and a big portion of his cranium eliminated that’s now coated by a prosthetic. He additionally suffered a damaged orbital socket and nostril within the assault. 

He stated the medical doctors and nurses within the intensive care unit at San Francisco Common Hospital have been uncertain if he would even survive.

He will get medical remedies from the Division of Veteran’s Affairs, which he stated has saved him from the $1.5 million in medical payments he’s racked up. 

Ojea stated in be in courtroom Friday talking out in opposition to his alleged assailant’s request to have his case diverted. If the choose agrees, Sutton is scheduled to go to trial every week later.

Within the meantime, Ojea stated he’s making an attempt to get his life again on monitor and hopes to get again to work. 

“I do really feel higher me than another person. I don’t know too many different folks that might have been in a position to deal with the beating and stroll away from it,” he stated. 

Evan Sernoffsky is an investigative reporter for KTVU. E mail Evan at evan.sernoffsky@fox.com and observe him on Twitter @EvanSernoffsky