A parolee was ordered Thursday to stand trial in an attack last summer on U.S. Olympic volleyball player Kim Glass in downtown Los Angeles.
Glass, a member of the 2008 Team USA Olympic volleyball team, suffered facial fractures and other injuries in the July 2022 attack. She was leaving a restaurant after lunch when she was struck by a 10-inch metal bolt.
Semeon Tesfamariam, 52, is charged with a felony count of assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly throwing the bolt at Glass and faces an allegation that he personally inflicted great bodily injury. Superior Court Judge David Fields rejected a defense motion to dismiss the case.
Get Southern California news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC LA newsletters.
Glass testified that she was looking at a friend's new car at Olive and Eighth streets when she saw a man, whom she identified as Tesfamariam, rushing toward her with a shiny metal object in his hand.
"He was like looking at me, like really deep into my eyes," Glass said. "I've never seen him before in my life."
Glass said no words were exchanged before the attack. When she turned, she saw the man move and then felt her head in pain, Glass testified. She then fell and saw blood on the ground.
"I didn't know what hit me," Glass said.
Glass suffered multiple fractures around her eye, injuries that she described in an Instagram post.
Witnesses detained the attacker at the scene.
"I heard him say, 'It wasn't me,'" Glass testified.
Tesfamariam remains jailed without bail while awaiting arraignment March 30.
Tesfamariam's first felony assault occurred in 2018 and the second in 2019, according to the District Attorney's Office, which noted that he was initially sentenced to probation and later was sentenced to state prison and was on parole at the time of the attack on Glass.
Arraignment was initially delayed last year when criminal proceedings were suspended after a doubt was declared about his mental competency. He later pleaded not guilty.
