As the case went to trial, it resonated beyond Long Beach, generating heated discussion on talk radio and drawing national media attention. City officials called for unity and held numerous meetings to ease racial tensions. The court proceeding often did little to dampen the emotion, but rather demonstrated how messy the workings of the justice system can be.
Prosecutors had to make sense of pandemonium that night, proving who, on a darkened street with hundreds of people, joined a mob of about 30 that took part in the beating, and what their motivations were.
Because the law requires juveniles to go to trial within 15 court days of their arraignment unless they are released from custody, the district attorney's office had to build its case in three weeks.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrea Bouas relied on victim Hyman and an eyewitness, Kiana Alford, to describe how the defendants attacked the three young women because they were white.
Hyman testified that she and her two friends were at Bixby Road and Linden Avenue -- where hundreds of people are drawn every year by elaborate Halloween displays -- when a black male in a crowd began to sexually taunt her.
Hyman said that the women ignored the jibes but that the crowd grew angry. Someone yelled, "I hate ... white people," as others began to pelt the women with small pumpkins and lemons, Hyman testified. As the trio tried to walk away up Linden, the mob grabbed them and began to pummel them.
Hyman suffered multiple fractures in her nose and around her eye, and will require surgery to reposition her eye. Schneider was knocked unconscious and probably suffered a concussion. Smith's injuries were not detailed in court, but Otto said her lung was bruised.
On the stand, Alford reconstructed the incident in detail, describing who in the scrum punched and kicked which victim, even who threw lemons and pumpkins at them.
Under cross-examination, however, she said she was 175 to 300 feet away during the attack, watching over her shoulder and in her rearview mirror. She also conceded that it was too dark to make out what individuals were doing. And her companion that night, called by the defense, testified that they arrived after the beating was over.
