Suspects In Brutal Beating Of Disabled Yuba City Man Released Minutes Before Court Appearance
YUBA CITY (CBS13) — The men arrested for the beating of a disabled man who was left for dead have been released from jail because of insufficient evidence, the victim's family told CBS13.
Manny Bath is out of a coma, but loved ones say he remembers nothing of the vicious attack that landed him in the hospital. Half the time, he doesn't even recognize his own family.
"The first time I went to see him, I asked, 'Do you know who I am?' and he just sat straight up with a blank stare and said, 'No,'" said his brother Ahmad Bath.
Bath's brothers say the attackers who jumped their disabled brother, leaving him unconscious on a Yuba City sidewalk in an apparent coordinated gang attack are cowards.
"They just stomped on him, beat him up, then took off running when they heard the cops were coming," Ahmad said.
His brothers say he was just walking down the sidewalk to a nearby 7-Eleven. It would have been obvious he couldn't fight back. His left side was very weak and he walked with a pronounced limp. In fact, they say he was just learning to walk again.
Manny was still recovering from a stroke after a brain injury years ago.
Yuba City Police called him an innocent victim of gang violence and arrests were made. But minutes before Manny's family would have face the suspects in court, they were stunned to learn no charges would be filed and the men were released from jail and sent home.
"At that moment everybody in the family, their hearts sank, like, can this be true," Ahmad said. "Can this be true that they're just gonna get away with everything they did to my brother? And everybody was just like, 'whoa.'"
He says the Sutter County District Attorney's Office told him there wasn't enough evidence for now to prosecute.
"For us, it was shocking. It's like what else did you need, because we talked to the officer and the officer's saying, yeah these are the guys. this is who did it," he said.
We reached out to the district attorney's office, but there was nobody to take calls during the holiday weekend.
Manny's family promises to never give up fighting for justice, and they're pleading with witnesses who saw something but kept quiet to come forward now.