The suspects who allegedly beat a pregnant woman in the parking
lot of her Morgan Hill home while yelling racial epithets are
facing assault charges with a hate crime enhancement, and may face
murder charges if her unborn child dies.
Morgan Hill – The suspects who allegedly beat a pregnant woman in the parking lot of her Morgan Hill home while yelling racial epithets are facing assault charges with a hate crime enhancement, and may face murder charges if her unborn child dies.
Xochitl Calderon, 32, who is two months pregnant, was beaten and kicked Thursday evening at the Murphy Ranch apartment complex on East Dunne Avenue in Morgan Hill following an argument over a bag of groceries. Charles Peralta, 24, and Nicole Agriesti, 21, both of Morgan Hill, each are being held in Santa Clara County Jail on a $250,000 bond.
Calderon returned to the hospital for an overnight stay Friday and again on Sunday, but has not lost her unborn child.
“I feel bad, really bad,” Calderon said by phone Monday afternoon. “I am hurting, aching, and I was back at the hospital yesterday again because I was bleeding again.”
The doctor, she said, told her there is a 90 percent chance she will lose the baby. If she does lose the baby, murder charges will be filed against the pair that attacked her, according to Chief Assistant Deputy District Attorney Frank Carrubba.
“Charges of assault resulting in serious bodily injury … were filed, with a hate crime enhancement,” Carrubba said.
The hate crime enhancement could add four years to their sentence, if the two suspects are convicted. They could be sentenced to a total of eight years in state prison, Carrubba said. The special enhancement springs from racial remarks yelled at Calderon, who is Latino, during the assault, according to Morgan Hill Police Cmdr. Joe Sampson.
“The things they allegedly said, it’s gut-wrenching,” he said.
According to statements from witnesses and Calderon, Agriesti and Peralta yelled racial slurs as they attacked her.
“They said bad words, they called me names, they said, ‘You (expletive) wetback, go back,'” Calderon said. “When I said to them, ‘You should pay for my food,’ the man, he said, ‘I’ll pay your food, you (expletive) wetback woman,’ and he pushed a penny at me. And he and the woman, they screamed at me more bad words.”
Sampson said according to statements from the victim and witnesses, the argument allegedly began when Peralta and Agriesti ran over Calderon’s groceries in the parking lot. The argument then became physical, Sampson said, when Agriesti and Peralta “began to punch and kick her numerous times on her face and body.”
“He hit me, with a closed hand, he hit my face, my arm, my leg, and he pressed my knee, and they both together hit my stomach,” she said. “I was telling them please don’t hurt my baby and calling out for someone to help me … I was very surprised, I don’t know why they do it. I’ve never had no problems there, nothing. And they said to me, ‘Mexican, what you do here,’ and they called me stupid.”
Sampson said the only motive revealed so far that he has heard in interviews with the suspects is that Calderon allegedly kicked the vehicle they were in after Peralta gave or threw a penny at her.
“He said she went around to the woman’s side of the car and kicked the car,” Sampson said.
Calderon said she is scheduled for an ultrasound soon, if she does not lose the baby before then.
Agriesti and Peralta will be arraigned today, Carrubba said.
