Candice Macias and Adina Stewart at an event last June. (Photo by Antonia Padilla)

Lesbian beaten and robbed outside her apartment
QSanAntonio.com, November 13, 2009

A lesbian was severely beaten and robbed outside her apartment on the near Northwest side during the early morning hours of November 8 while her partner watched helplessly as the assailant screamed out, "I’m gonna kill you."

The victim, Adina Stewart, 34, and her partner Candice Macias, 26, were walking into their apartment on Patricia Street around 5 a.m. They had spent the evening with friends at a birthday party.

"I came inside before she did," says Macias who adds that Stewart went back to their truck to retrieve some items she had left behind. Macias changed her clothes and was sitting on her bed when she heard voices shouting outside.

"I heard Adina screaming and saw her on the ground through the window. When I went outside I started yelling at the guy." The attacker had a black bandana over his face.

Macias ran outside but the man did not move. She says his eyes were wide and dilated and he appeared to be smiling under the black bandana. "I was able to see top part of his face and his body as he walked away."

In the wake of the attack Stewart lay lifeless on the ground with a skull fracture and internal bleeding. Macias believes the attacker struck Stewart on the head with a beer bottle.

Stewart was robbed of two cell phones, car keys, and a wallet. In her stupor she kept repeating to Macias that the assailant was yelling, "I’m gonna kill you. I’m gonna kill you."

Macias brought Stewart into their apartment and a neighbor called the police since the couple's cell phones were stolen by the attacker.

"EMS showed up within ten minutes of the first call but waited at the corner of the street," says Macias. "They said they could not assist Adina because they needed to wait for the cops to arrive."

"The cops showed up 60 minutes after EMS showed up," says Macias. "For an hour my partner was losing consciousness and lots blood." She says a total of four calls were made to the SAPD.

Once San Antonio Police were on the scene, the EMS transported Stewart to University Hospital. Macias says "the EMS attended to Adina and took her away immediately when they saw all the blood."

Later that morning at University Hospital, police detained a man who had come into the emergency room for a scratch on his face thinking that perhaps he was the assailant and might had gotten scratched by Stewart. Macias was asked to look at the man from a window in another room but she said that he was not the one who attacked Stewart.

Adina Stewart at University Hosptial after the attack. A trail of blood remains on the sidewalk leading to the couple's apartment door. (Photos by Candice Macias)

On Wednesday, November 11, three days after the attack, Stewart’s condition was much improved and she was released from the hospital. However, Macias is worried that her partner’s attacker will never be caught.

She says her worst fears were realized when she went back to the apartment on the day after the attack to pick up some clothes and is certain she saw the assailant, or someone who looked very much like him, inside the apartment complex. "I asked the leasing office who he was and they told me he was getting evicted."

"I immediately called the cops to see if I could get someone to come over and take a look at the guy. I couldn’t get anyone to look into it. Nobody wanted to take my calls. Finally, Adina’s mom was able to find someone to listen to us but it took two days to do so," says Macias.

When Macias spoke to QSanAntonio on Wednesday, she expressed frustration at having to deal with the SAPD bureaucracy. She had been to police headquarters but had not been able to obtain a police report and the detective assigned to the case was taking three days off.

Since the incident, Macias and Stewart have been staying with Stewart’s mother. They are shaken and traumatized by the attack and the fear that the attacker knows where they live has fueled their decision to move out of their apartment.

"We’ll be moving out on Saturday," says Macias, "We don’t want to live here another day."