San Antonio brawl that nearly took man’s eye will cost attacker 12 years

A barroom brawl that nearly cost a man his eye and led to a two-year legal case drew to a close Thursday afternoon, November 30. In the end, the lengthy criminal prosecution delivered a 12-year prison sentence to a San Antonio man.

In August of 2021, the brawl broke out at a bar on the Northeast Side of San Antonio, Lefty’s Draft House, after a verbal argument turned violent. Video played during the guilt phase of the trial against Camden Williams — a plumber who went out for drinks with coworkers — showed surveillance footage of the fateful August night.

“We said, ‘Hi.’ We hugged. ‘How are you?’ Our usual conversations,” Charm Williams, a friend of victim Stefan Rodriguez, testified back in September before a jury found Williams guilty of assault causing serious bodily injury. “Stefan was hanging out with the others. Then one thing led to another, and they started fighting. The boys, the men, Stefan, his friends, and Camden, and his friends.”

Surveillance footage from that night showed Rodriguez approach a group of men, of which Williams was a part of, who were already engaged in a verbal argument. Then, seemingly without any warning, Williams threw several hard punches at Rodriguez, knocking him to the ground.

He didn’t stop there, however, as Williams then took the heel of his boot and slammed it down on Rodriguez’s head, something prosecutors likened to a curb stomp. This blow nearly cost Rodriguez his eye, according to prosecutors’ opening statements, as he had to have emergency surgery for a blown out lower orbital bone caused by the blow from Williams’ boot.

Video then shows Williams hopping over the back of the fenced in patio and throwing several punches at other men in the bar’s parking lot, including one man who was already laid out on the ground.

After Williams was found guilty by a jury of his peers, it turned to a Bexar County judge to determine his punishment  — then a months-long pretrial sentencing investigation ensued. During this, it became known that Williams was already on probation for two other criminal charges, including burglary and domestic violence charges.

In the end, a Bexar County judge sentenced Williams to 12 years in state prison for his assault of Rodriguez. Due to violating the conditions of his deferred adjudication for his family violence misdemeanor, he was also sentenced to one year in jail for that charge. Further, prosecutors moved to revoke his probation on a burglary of habitation charge after his 12-year sentence.

“The District Attorney’s Office works hard to uphold justice and successfully prosecute criminal cases,” Pete P. Gallego, assistant criminal district attorney and director of communications for the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, told MySA. “We are proud of the efforts of Assistant District Attorneys Alicia Lovett (at trial) and Ross Lewis (who handled the punishment phase) and their trial teams for successfully prosecuting this case.”