{"id":128741,"date":"2026-03-03T20:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T20:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/128741\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T20:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T20:48:12","slug":"allentown-man-admits-beating-pregnant-hatfield-woman-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/128741\/","title":{"rendered":"Allentown man admits beating pregnant Hatfield woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

NORRISTOWN \u2014 An Allentown man will spend up to eight years in prison on charges he beat a Hatfield Township woman who was pregnant with his child during an assault that was recorded by surveillance cameras outside her apartment.<\/p>\n

Raymond Anthony Bautista, 37, of the 900 block of West Cedar Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 4 to 8 years in a state correctional facility in connection with the early morning April 24, 2025, attack outside the victim\u2019s apartment in the 2000 block of Maple Avenue in Hatfield Township.<\/p>\n

Specifically, Bautista pleaded guilty to a felony charge of aggravated assault in connection with his attack of the woman and entered a no contest plea to a charge of aggravated assault of an unborn child.<\/p>\n

The no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is an admission that prosecutors could present sufficient evidence at a trial to prove the charge of assault of the unborn child. A no contest plea is considered a conviction under state law.<\/p>\n

Judge Steven T. O\u2019Neill imposed the sentence as part of a plea agreement.<\/p>\n

Bautista bowed his head as a victim impact statement from the 34-year-old woman was read in court by the prosecutor. The woman stated she suffers \u201cnights where I cannot sleep\u201d and anxiety attacks.<\/p>\n

\"RaymondRaymond Bautista is escorted by a deputy sheriff from a Montgomery County courtoom on March 3, 2026, after he admitted to brutal domestic assault of pregnant woman. (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. \u2013 MediaNews Group)<\/p>\n

\u201cUp to this day I have been so scared to leave my home in the mornings, a glimpse of what happened comes to my mind every day\u2026I\u2019ve lost my peace of leaving home every morning,\u201d the woman wrote in the statement. \u201cEvery place where I am I feel his presence. It sounds ridiculous but this is what I live with every day. This is something that has marked my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

As her statement was read in the courtroom by Assistant District Attorney Bradley Walter Deckel, the woman, who was accompanied to court by a victim advocate, used a tissue to dab tears from her eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo woman deserves to be treated this way. There is no justification, especially while pregnant. That moment the only thing I cared about was protecting my baby inside of me from this person,\u201d the woman wrote in her statement. \u201cI am here, present because the only thing I am asking for is justice for me and my baby so we can have a peaceful life. I am raising my voice for those women who are victims of domestic violence and that fear they do not have access to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman has since given birth to the child, who is healthy, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill ordered Bautista to complete a domestic violence counseling program as a condition of the sentence. The judge said Bautista is prohibited from having contact with the woman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard trauma. I heard emotional pain. But mostly, I heard her courage,\u201d said O\u2019Neill, reacting to the victim\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

Bautista, who was represented by defense lawyer James Charles Veith, did not address the courtroom during the hearing, other than to affirm his plea to the judge. Bautista, wearing maroon jail clothes, did not offer any expression of remorse as sheriff\u2019s deputies escorted him from the courtroom to begin serving the sentence.<\/p>\n

Deckel sought the prison term for Bautista, who attacked the woman at about 4:30 a.m. as she left her apartment to head to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis defendant waited for her outside and ambushed her in the middle of the morning while she was innocently going to work. She was taken by surprise and he was much larger than her and he viciously assaulted her, punched her and kicked her numerous times while she was pregnant,\u201d Deckel said. \u201cA state sentence is the only appropriate sentence given the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MontgomeryMontgomery County Prosecutor Bradley Walter Deckel (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. \u2013 MediaNews Group)<\/p>\n

The woman supported the outcome of the case.<\/p>\n

Deckel said the plea agreement spared the woman from having to re-live \u201cthe most traumatic day of her life\u201d at a trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe doesn\u2019t have to think about how she was beat when she was vulnerable and pregnant with her child at the time, and she\u2019s able to move forward with her life knowing that she\u2019s gotten justice,\u201d said Deckel, explaining the woman had input during the plea negotiations process.<\/p>\n

Deckel said the woman was extremely courageous to come to court and face her attacker.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s an incredibly strong woman\u2026She\u2019s a woman that\u2019s incredibly brave to go to the police and had incredible resolve to continue to go through this process,\u201d Deckel said. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to be a victim of a crime but she demonstrated that if you have that resolve, the district attorney\u2019s office, the local police, will be behind you to support you and at the end of the day we will help you get justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigation began about 4:30 a.m. April 24, 2025, when police were dispatched to the apartment complex for a report of an assault. The victim reported she was assaulted after she exited her apartment building on her way to work at Clemens Food Group, according to a criminal complaint filed by Hatfield Detective Corporal Eric Geiger.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe stated she walked down the steps and was hit from behind by an unknown male wearing all black and black ski mask. She stated the male kicked her in the back and stomach and punched her in the face,\u201d Geiger alleged in the arrest affidavit.<\/p>\n

The attacker ran off when the woman repeatedly screamed.<\/p>\n

Police observed the woman to have a bloody nose, blood on her clothing and she complained of hip and back pain. Court documents indicate the woman was treated at a local hospital for nasal bone fractures, abrasions and bruises, some injuries which reportedly required follow-up treatment by a medical specialist to repair.<\/p>\n

When police asked the woman if she knew of anyone who would want to harm her, she told police \u201cthe only person she could think of that may want to hurt her was the father of her unborn child, Raymond Bautista,\u201d who worked with her at Clemens Food, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n

The woman told detectives that Bautista knew she was pregnant with his child and that he previously had suggested she take an emergency contraceptive, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The victim) told Mr. Bautista she was going to keep the child. Mr. Bautista told (the victim) that he did not want any involvement in the child\u2019s life,\u201d Geiger alleged.<\/p>\n

The woman told detectives that Bautista knew where she lived, that he had previously been at her apartment, and that they worked together and he was familiar with her work schedule.<\/p>\n

The assault was recorded by a neighbor\u2019s Ring camera that was positioned overlooking the parking lot. That footage depicted a male, wearing all black clothing, shoes and gloves, \u201crunning towards her, pushing her to the ground, kicking her and punching her,\u201d according to the arrest affidavit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe actor kicks her multiple times and then gets on top of her and punches her in the face area,\u201d Geiger alleged. \u201cAdditional surveillance video shows the suspect fleeing the area on foot towards Maple Avenue in Hatfield Borough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RaymondRaymond Bautista (Booking photo courtesy Montgomery County District Attorney)<\/p>\n

Investigators used automated license plate readers in the area that showed Bautista\u2019s 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer traveling northbound on Route 309, about 14 miles from the crime scene, about 20 minutes after the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that time of the morning, it is reasonable to say that the travel time from the crime scene to the location of the (license plate reader) would be 12-15 minutes,\u201d Geiger alleged.<\/p>\n

Additional surveillance footage depicted a vehicle similar to Bautista\u2019s vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed on Maple Avenue near Union Street in Hatfield moments after the attack.<\/p>\n

Allentown police later found Bautista\u2019s vehicle at his residence and \u201cobserved a dark colored ski mask and dark gloves on the front passenger side floorboard of the vehicle,\u201d court documents indicate.<\/p>\n

Police made contact with Bautista at his residence at 6:40 a.m. and he initially told police he had been in his residence sleeping all night and morning after he had called out of work. Bautista could not provide any information as to why his vehicle was observed on license plate readers being operated between the hours of 4:30 a.m. and 5 a.m., according to court papers.<\/p>\n

\u201cDetectives obtained a search warrant for Mr. Bautista\u2019s vehicle and recovered a black ski mask with eye holes but no mouth hole, black gloves, and black boots from the front passenger floorboard of the vehicle. The clothing was similar to the clothing the suspect wore during the commission of the assault,\u201d Geiger alleged, adding that Bautista claimed the items were his work clothes.<\/p>\n

However, during another interview on April 28, Bautista confessed to committing the assault and said he did it because the victim was \u201ctalking (expletive)\u201d about him at work, according to the arrest affidavit.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Bautista also admitted that the ski mask recovered from his car was the same ski mask he was wearing during the assault,\u201d Geiger alleged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORRISTOWN \u2014 An Allentown man will spend up to eight years in prison on charges he beat a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[119,153,155,154,46,59890,1622,51664,433,182,200,139,28,10918],"class_list":["post-128741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-allentown","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-courts","tag-hatfield","tag-hatfield-township","tag-horsham-township","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-montgomery-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}