A 41-year-old Orange County man was ordered today to stand trial for allegedly smashing a beer bottle onto the head of a Dallas Cowboys' fan at a Chargers game in San Diego Sept. 29.
Judge Michael Smyth ruled there is enough evidence for Ramon Heredia to stand trial Feb. 28 on an assault with a deadly weapon charge that could send him to state prison for up to four years.
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Out of custody on $30,000 bail, Heredia entered a not guilty plea to the charge at an earlier court hearing.
Ramon Heredia Pleads Not Guilty to Bashing Cowboys Fan with Bottle at Chargers Game
Before Smyth handed down his ruling, 31-year-old Joshua Zumwalt testified he was wearing the jersey of Cowboy Dez Bryant (No. 88) and having a friendly encounter with Heredia's group of tailgating Chargers' fans after the game that San Diego won 30-21. But then the trash talking began, followed by Zumwalt getting punched by one unidentified fellow and then believing he had been sucker-punched to the side of the head by another. He did not discover until later that the second hit came from a beer bottle. Watch this:
Zumwalt, who stands about 6-foot-5, confided he was buzzed from several beers before and after the game, but he denied a report that he had pushed a woman or had to be restrained before getting to Heredia's group, according to a report by City News Service's Kelly Wheeler. But the video above begins with Zumwalt being calmed down by others in Cowboys jerseys.
The bottle-battered one said he believed he suffered a concussion, that he missed a day of work but that he did not see a doctor.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.