MANHATTAN — The man who punched a Bronx woman into a coma over an East Village parking spot last year was acquitted Tuesday on the most serious charge he faced, but he could still serve up to a year in jail, the Manhattan District Attorney said.
Oscar Fuller, who was accused of knocking 25-year-old Lana Rosas to the ground and causing permanent brain damage, was convicted Tuesday of misdemeanor assault but was acquitted on the more serious charge of felony assault, prosecutors said.
Fuller, 35, will face up to a year in jail at his sentencing June 13, prosecutors said.
"This was a brutal and unjustified act of rage," DA Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement. "That a petty argument over a parking space could escalate into physical violence is shameful."
At Fuller's first trial last fall, the jury deadlocked on the charges and did not return a verdict.
Fuller, a Queens resident, had said he did not intend to hit Rosas so hard as they argued over a parking spot on East 14th Street that she was trying to reserve for her friend.
The February 2011 fight landed Rosas in the hospital, with her brain so swollen that doctors had to remove a portion of her skull. She remained in a coma for a week.
Fuller later apologized for the attack and said his decision to hit Rosas was a "reflex."
