The petite 25-year-old woman punched by a furious driver over a parking spot she was saving for her boyfriend is conscious more than a month after she was knocked into a coma.
Lana Rosas was trying to hold the spot between two other parked cars on East 14th Street in the East Village in late February when police say Oscar Fuller pulled up in a minivan. A confrontation ensued over the parking spot, and Rosas ended up on the ground in a pool of blood.
Though the 4-foot-11-inch Bronx woman is out of a coma, she will need "months and months" of rehabilitation, a law-enforcement source told The New York Post.
Fuller fled the scene after the February 25 incident, but police later caught up with him and charged him with felony assault.
On Thursday, Fuller pleaded not guilty to a felony assault charge. Fuller's lawyer says the electrician is "putting his faith in the judicial system.''
He and his lawyer have said Rosas started the fight, that Fuller acted in self defense and that he should only be charged with a misdemeanor. Fuller has expressed remorse for causing her severe injury and said he didn't realize how badly she was hurt at the time he left the scene.
Prosecutors said in court that Fuller punched Rosas in the face "with so much force that the woman flew off her feet," according to court papers.
Early on, doctors weren't sure Rosas would survive her injuries.
Fuller is due back in court May 26. The Manhattan district attorney indicted him Thursday on second-degree assault charges. If convicted, he could spend up to seven years behind bars.
