Mexican confesses to brutal attack on Calgary woman
Jose Ramon Quintero said he was drunk and high on cocaine when Sheila Nabb entered a hotel elevator naked.
Quintero was arrested by Mexican authorities in connection with the Calgarian’s brutal beating last week in a Mazatlan resort.
The 28-year-old was brought out to confess in front of the media in Mazatlan on Saturday morning wearing a florescent orange vest and accompanied by black-suited armed guards.
He told his story in Spanish as a translator repeated the story in English. Then he explained what happened in English.
Quintero has not been convicted in court.
“It wasn’t planned or anything like that; it just happened in the moment,” 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 Calgary’s 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.
Quintero told media he had been drinking with a Canadian friend named John who was a resident of Cerritos, Mexico.
After bar-hopping across Mazatlan, they went back to the friend’s house to drink beer. When finished, they decided to head to the Hotel Riu, which had a 24-hour bar free for guests.
The friend went in through the front door, as a foreigner would not be questioned by hotel staff. Quintero said he entered the ritzy hotel through the beach entrance.
“Very drunk” and high on cocaine, he said he got on the elevator.
That’s when a woman, presumably 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.
The door opened and Nabb moved to step out. Quintero said he put his hand on the door, blocking her exit “and keep talking to her because, I don’t know, I thought we were talking normally.” Nabb became agitated. “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 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.
He then left through the beach entrance.
He said he did not kick the Calgary woman.
The Mexican authorities told local media the investigation is continuing as they’re still trying to track down Quintero’s Canadian friend and his mother.
Quintero is slated to appear before a Mexican judge on charges of attempted murder within the next two days.
Nabb’s brother, Paul Giles, said the family does not know what happened, but said she was not sexually assaulted.
Mexican authorities confirmed Nabb was naked at the time of the beating.
During a news conference in Mexico, a reporter asked to see Quintero’s hands.
He held them out for inspection. They appeared to be unscratched and unbruised.
The state general attorney said Quintero was investigated in 2008 for rape.