Two Ocala gal pals were jailed recently after a nasty battle that also involved two others.
Natalia Angelina Claudio, 19, and Jasmine Vargas, 40, were arrested at a residence on Ash Course and transported to the Marion County Jail. Claudio was charged with burglary with assault or battery and released on $25,000 bond. Her next court date hasn’t yet been set, Marion County Jail records show.
Vargas was charged with battery and burglary with battery. She was being held on $27,000 bond and is due in court April 6 at 9 a.m.
The victim told Marion County sheriff’s deputies that Claudio and Vargas entered her vehicle and began hitting her in the face and neck. She said she came to the incident location after Vargas called her.
Deputies noted a small laceration on the bottom of the victim’s face, swelling on her left cheekbone and swelling likely caused by a scratch on the back side of her neck. The victim’s shirt also was torn along the seam of the neck and right shoulder but she refused medical treatment, a sheriff’s office report states.
Claudio initially claimed the victim struck her during a scuffle in which the victim was trying to hit Vargas. Claudio said she was caught in the middle of the fight and it all happened so fast it was a “blur,” the report says.
An eyewitness told deputies that Vargas battered him several times and he saw both Claudio and Vargas attack the female victim while she was inside her vehicle. The eyewitness also provided video footage of the incident that showed Vargas battering him several times, the report says.
Claudio and Vargas were then placed under arrest and after being read her rights, Claudio claimed the incident happened so fast she couldn’t remember exactly what took place. She said it happened “in the heat of the moment” and once she could no longer answer any additional questions, she said she no longer wished to speak with deputies, according to the report.