Three Long Beach teens were charged with conspiring to assault a pregnant woman, and punching her in the stomach, in an attempt to induce a miscarriage, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Seventeen-year-old Angel Contreras and two women were to be arraigned on six felony counts after the trio was charged with beating Contreras’ pregnant girlfriend, trying to force her to miscarry.
Contreras, along with Claudia Rodriguez, 18, and Candy Patricio, 19, were accused of trying to kidnap the pregnant woman so they could punch her in the stomach, according to Deputy District Attorney Troy Davis.
The woman, whose age was not revealed, was about 13 weeks pregnant on March 4 when the women tried to take her as she walked home, Davis said.
The attempt must have failed, because weeks later, Contreras got on a bus with his pregnant girlfriend and called Rodriguez and Patricio, the prosecutor said.
The two women were accused of then trying to drag the pregnant woman in to a car to beat her when a witness noticed.
The teen is still pregnant, and did not miscarry.
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The plotted attacks sent shock waves through the Long Beach community.
"It's insane," Pamela Sanchez, a Long Beach resident, said. "I don’t understand why someone would do that to a pregnant woman. There's other ways to fix issues if you don't want to go through that."
The trio was charged with two counts each of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, one count of kidnapping, and assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury.
Contreras was charged as an adult.
Two of the three were being held on $4 million bail.
They are all expected to be arraigned on May 30.
City News Service contributed to this report.
