A year in jail for skipping out on your restaurant bill?
Only if you then drive over your waitress who follows you out to your car in the Anaheim eatery’s parking lot, and you agree to plead guilty to assault with a deadly weapon — your vehicle.
The waitress, who sustained minor to moderate injuries, said at the time she “just had a feeling that something was not going to work out at the end of them having lunch.”
In fact, as part of the plea, the 26-year-old defendant had hit-and-run and defrauding an innkeeper charges dismissed.
Rowshaid Cordell Pellum of Cerritos, entered his guilty plea Monday and he was immediately sentenced to a year in jail, or time already served. He’d been arrested in May, 2016.
In addition, he was placed on three years of formal probation.
Pellum pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon, according to court records. A felony count of failing to stop at a hit-and-run with injury was dismissed as well as a misdemeanor count of defrauding an innkeeper, according to court records.
Three co-defendants previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of defrauding an innkeeper.
Co-defendants Santeea Munay Ralph, 25, was sentenced to 10 days in jail while Shyteice Lashay Miles, 21, and Markeisha Michelle Williams, 20, all of Long Beach, were sentenced to four days in jail.
The hit-and-run occurred at 6:22 p.m., March 22, 2015, at the Mexico Lindo restaurant, 10962 Magnolia Ave., in an unincorporated area bordering Anaheim.
The four patrons left without paying, prompting their then-28-year-old server to follow them out to the parking lot to confront them, sheriff’s officials said.
As the suspects drove away in a black Volkswagen Jetta, the waitress was struck by the sedan and knocked down, sheriff’s officials said.
Maria Uriostegui, a mother of two, was taken to an area hospital with what was characterized at the time as “minor to moderate” injuries.
Uriostegui told reporters after being released from the hospital that she had a feeling the group was going to walk out on their bill.
“When they got there, there was just something that — I just had a feeling that something was not going to work out at the end of them having lunch,” Uriostegui said.
“And I kept kind of a close eye on them because I just had that sense. And yes, they just walked out and I went to tell them, `I’m sorry you guys forgot to pay your bill.’ They, the four of them, turned around, looked at me, laughed and just kept walking to their car.”
Uriostegui said she was hoping to jot down the license plate number, but the car had no plates.
— City News Service
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