Next Thursday, Pasty Hooper will celebrate her 59th birthday. I don't know if she'll have a party, a cake, or even someone to sing happy birthday. However, an arrest warrant shows she is a woman who is very lucky to see January 27th.
According to the warrant,on October 10, 2008, Hooper was assaulted by her neighbor's son. Police say it happened around 9 p.m. in the 5800 block of Ingram Road. She says Joshua Lee Jaso grabbed her arm and beat her in the head repeatedly. The west side woman blacked out.
Two days later, while doing a welfare check on her tenant, police say Hooper's apartment manager found her knocked out in a bloody apartment. Officers were called just after 10:30 that morning. Hooper was rushed to St. Luke's Hospital. Her skull was fractured. In fact, the warrant say portions of the skull had to be removed.
For a month, Hooper wasn't able to talk with detectives who needed to follow up on the case. In mid November she was, finally, able to share her story of unconscious survival.
Another month passed before she was able to identify Jaso as a suspect from a photo line up. A warrant was issued for his arrest on January 20th.
Hooper's story is just one example of the 21% increase in Aggravated Assaults on the city's west side last year. San Antonio Police crime statistics show it's the largest increase for that crime in the city. A direct attribution to the jump hasn't been pinpointed.
However, in the first 10 days of 2009 as compared to the same period in 2008, that number dropped by almost 77%. But, that's just the first 10 days. Those, by the way, are latest figures available.
As for Jaso, he was arrested yesterday on a charge of Aggravated Assault/Serious Bodily Injury. It came 7 days before Patsy Hooper's birthday. Her present came early.
