ANTIOCH — A 20-year-old Hayward man was charged Wednesday with three felonies in a Nov. 12 assault that caused a restaurant worker to lose an eye, the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office said.
Isaac White-Carter is charged with mayhem, assault likely to produce great bodily injury and criminal threats. He is accused of attacking 19-year-old Bianca Palomera at The Habit Burger Grill on Mahogany Way where she worked after she stepped in to protect a person with intellectual disabilities from being bullied by White-Carter.
A news release from the Contra Costa DA’s Office Wednesday announcing the charges said that as Palomera was trying to defuse the situation, White-Carter punched her several times in the face, causing an irreparable injury to her eye. Doctors at a local hospital tried to save her eye but the damage was too severe. The person she was defending is a relative of a co-worker, prosecutors said.
White-Carter was arrested in Hayward on Monday and is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday. He is being held at the Martinez Detention Facility in lieu of $215,000 bail.
If convicted by a jury, White-Carter could face a maximum sentence of almost 11 years in state prison, the release said.
In a statement Monday, Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe praised the police department’s investigations team’s efforts.
“If you come to Antioch, let me make myself perfectly clear and I have made myself perfectly clear in the past: you will be found, you will be arrested and you will face criminal prosecution through the District Attorney Diana Becton’s office,” Thorpe said. “We will not tolerate it here.”
Thorpe added that he plans to call a special city meeting at 6 p.m. Dec. 13 to present Palomera with Antioch’s highest honor, a key to the city “for her diligence on that day, for standing up for someone who has special needs. She truly reflects the spirit of who we are as a community.”
Staff writers George Kelly and Judith Prieve contributed to this report.
Source: www.mercurynews.com