A man who pleaded no contest to trying to kill a 74-year-old security guard during an attack in a Pomona parking lot last year was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in state prison.
“Thank you for forgiving me. I apologize for my actions,” Jose Manuel Quezada Jr. told Melvin Beauford and his oldest daughter after each said they forgave him.
Superior Court Judge Mildred Escobedo said that it wasn’t very often that victims forgive their assailants or that defendants admit their culpability and regret, and noted that the 33-year-old defendant was crying in the downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
The judge told Quezada that he will have to make a choice once he gets to prison and that he can come out “a really tough criminal” or a person with a degree, and said that she hoped he would take that to heart.
Deputy District Attorney Phil Stirling noted the scars on Beauford’s head and said he is “fortunate to be here.”
The victim — who had approached a group of homeless people in the parking lot of Rio Rancho Towne Center at about 10 p.m. Sept. 13, 2022, and told them that they had to leave — was beaten with his own baton on the head by Quezada after being knocked to the ground by someone else who has not been identified, according to the prosecutor.
Beauford was in a coma for about two days, hospitalized for about three weeks and off work for about eight months, the deputy district attorney said, calling his recovery “amazing” and saying that he exhibited an “incredible act of forgiveness.”
Beauford said outside court that he is still dealing with headaches and memory loss as a result of the attack and went back to work against medical advice because he started getting behind on his bills.
The victim’s daughter, Tonya, said she worries about her father being back on the job, but believes he is “covered by God.”
“It wasn’t his time,” she said. “God doesn’t make mistakes.”
Beauford, who brought a Bible to court, asked that religious pamphlets be given to the defendant.
Quezada was arrested by Pomona police a month after the attack and has remained behind bars since then.
He pleaded no contest Sept. 19 to attempted murder and admitted that he personally inflicted great bodily injury on Beauford, causing coma and brain injury. Three other charges, including elder abuse, and a hate crime allegation were dismissed as a result of his plea.