Witnesses testify against Santa Rosa woman who drove into nightclub crowd

A witness testified Wednesday that a Santa Rosa woman attacked her romantic rival in a bar, hit her boyfriend in the face with a bottle and plowed her minivan into the man and three others when they retreated to the parking lot.

Jessica Garcia-Leos, 30, faces possible life in prison if convicted of five counts of attempted murder and other charges in the Nov. 14, 2015 incident at the defunct El Rey Night Club on Sebastopol Road.

At her preliminary hearing Wednesday, her boyfriend and other witnesses described the events leading up to the hit-and-run crash that resulted in injury but no loss of life.

The unidentified boyfriend who witnesses called Ricardo testified that he and Garcia-Leos had been dating just over a month when they made a late-night visit to the once-popular watering hole.

Upon entering, the man said he spotted his ex-girlfriend, Leticia Lezama, standing near the bar, and she noticed him, too. Garcia-Leos became enraged that they were looking at each other and picked a fight with the woman in which they grabbed each other’s hair and fell to the floor, he said.

Bystanders pulled the women apart. When the boyfriend walked away, he said ?Garcia-Leos turned on him, smacking him in the face with a bottle, leaving him bloodied.

At that point, he said the bartender called an ambulance and he and his ex-girlfriend walked outside to wait for it. They were joined by the bartender and two other friends, he said.

Across the parking lot, Garcia-Leos hopped behind the wheel of her minivan, turned on the headlights and yelled out a window at the boyfriend that it was time to go, he said.

When he didn’t move, she revved the engine, put the minivan in gear and drove toward him and the others at a fast pace, he said.

He was able to push his ex-girlfriend out of the way but was hit in the back with the mirror of the minivan before it ran over two women and another man.

All four were treated for injuries at local hospitals. One of the victims was briefly in a coma but survived, according to an attorney familiar with the case.

Garcia-Leos was arrested at her home the next day. Her lawyer on Wednesday defended her actions, saying the crash happened by accident as she drove away.

Garcia-Leos is also charged with drunken driving and assault. She was previously sentenced to six months in jail after being convicted of using her car as a deadly weapon in a 2005 case in which she deliberately struck another person, prosecutors said.

All the victims were expected to testify in the hearing before Judge Jamie Thistlethwaite to decide if there is enough evidence for a trial.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 707-568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.