Jose Ramon Quintero is accused of brutally beating Calgarian Sheila Nabb in a Mexico hotel elevator was in the midst of a drinking spree at the time of the assault |
MAZATLAN, Mexico — Dressed in an orange vest and accompanied by two armed guards clad in black armour, Jose Ramon Acosta Quintero was trotted out Saturday morning in front of a cadre of media to confess to the brutal beating of Calgarian Sheila Nabb.
Quintero said he was drunk and high on cocaine when Nabb entered a hotel elevator naked.
Quintero — also known by the nickname El Ray — was arrested by Mexican authorities in connection with Nabb’s assault last week at the Hotel Riu five-star resort in Mazatlan.
He has not been convicted in court.
He told his story in Spanish to a translator and then repeated the tale in English. “It wasn’t planned or anything like that, it just happened in the moment . . . I didn’t try to abuse her, I didn’t try to rob her or anything. I was just afraid and I wanted to leave,” he said.
“I’m so sorry, I apologize and I’m sorry and I hope she recovers because I’ve seen the papers and her face was bad.”
Nabb is recovering in Foothills Medical Centre. All the bones in her face were broken in the attack and her family has offered no updates as to her condition.
When asked whether she had a history of sleepwalking, her brother Paul Giles said the family does not know what happened in Mexico. However, he said she was not sexually assaulted.
A Mexican police report distributed a week ago said Nabb was found unconscious, bloody and naked.
Quintero told media he drank 19 alcoholic beverages with a Canadian friend who lived nearby.
After bar-hopping across Mazatlan, they went back to the friend’s house to drink beer. When the beer ran dry, they went to the Hotel Riu, which had a 24-hour bar that gave free drinks for guests.
The friend went through the front door, as a foreigner would not be questioned by hotel staff. Meanwhile, Quintero said he entered the ritzy hotel through the beach entrance.
“Very drunk” and high on a line of cocaine, he said he got on the elevator. Although the bar was not on the top floor, Quintero told media he hit the top button as he wanted to see a view of the city. At the sixth floor, the state attorney general said Nabb got on.
Quintero said she was naked.
“I was talking to her and she was talking to me normally. She didn’t seem afraid or anything like that,” he said.
When Nabb moved to step out of the elevator, Quintero said he put his hand on the door, blocking her exit “to keep talking to her because, I don’t know, I thought we were talking normally.”
Nabb became agitated, Quintero said.
“She got afraid when I didn’t let her out and she started yelling ‘He won’t let me out.’”
Quintero said he panicked.
“I got afraid also because she’s an American, or a she’s North American and I’m a Mexican and I wasn’t supposed to be in the hotel,” he said.
“And she was naked, so I covered her mouth and I said ‘Please don’t yell. I’m going to go home.’”
Nabb continued to yell, he said.
“She got more afraid when I covered her mouth.”
Quintero said he hit Nabb several times in the face with his fist and then left through the beach entrance.
The accused, his voice shaking as he recounted the tale, said he did not kick the Calgary woman.
During the press conference in Mexico, a reporter asked to see Quintero’s hands. He held them out for inspection. They appeared to be unscratched and unbruised.
Mexican authorities said they found fingerprints, clothing and a pair of Crocs sandals linked by blood. The attorney general also said police collected testimony from more than 13 people.
Local authorities boasted of being able to make the arrest in about a week, adding through a translator that they were motivated by the urgency of the matter.
According to the state general attorney, Quintero was investigated in 2008 for rape.
The Mexican authorities told local media that the investigation is continuing as they’re still trying to track down Quintero’s Canadian friend and his mother. Both have fled Mazatlan, police say. Quintero is slated to appear before a Mexican judge on charges of attempted murder within the next two days.
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