From: Platte County Prosecuting Attorney "Eric Zahnd"
Date: March 08, 2010
Subject: Man who punched 59-year-old grandmother pleads guilty
A Kansas City man who punched a 59-year old grandmother in the face pled guilty on the morning his jury trial was scheduled to begin. Pedro Guzman, 21, appeared in Platte County Circuit Court March 8 and admitted breaking the woman’s jaw after he hit her outside her home.
Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said, “I was taught as a child that there is no excuse for a man to hit a woman. I hope a long stay in prison teaches this defendant that simple truth.”
According to Zahnd, Guzman, who is not related to the victim, had given a ride to someone to the victim’s home on May 23, 2008. Guzman confessed that he got angry at the victim because he thought the victim had shut his car door too hard.
When the victim asked Guzman to leave her property, he punched her in the face. Immediately before the assault, Guzman told the victim’s granddaughter, “Get your Grandma … or I will put her on the floor.” |
Pedro Guzman
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Guzman hit the woman with such force on one side of her face that her jaw broke on the other side. As a result, she could not eat solid food for four weeks. The woman continues to have pain and headaches as a result of the injury.
Zahnd said phone calls from the Platte County Jail record Guzman saying about the victim, “People got to learn not to mouth off to people they don’t know.”
Guzman pled guilty to first degree assault without any agreement from prosecutors as to a recommended sentence. He is scheduled to be sentenced May 20. He faces ten to thirty years, or life, in prison.
Zahnd said, “It is despicable for a man to punch a woman—and even more so when the woman is nearly forty years older than the man. Senseless violence like this must be severely punished.”
The case was investigated by the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department. It was prosecuted by assistant prosecutors Chris Seufert and Matt Morris.
Eric G. Zahnd
Platte County Prosecuting Attorney
415 Third Street
Suite 60
Platte City, Missouri 64079
(816) 858-3476
(816) 858-3472 (fax)
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