Updated on May 19
A San Jose courtroom was crowded Wednesday afternoon with more than a dozen people who showed up in support of the three suspects in the Santana Row assault of two Israeli Americans in March.
Bruneil Henry Chamaki, Roma Akoyans and Ramon Akoyans stood side by side, dressed in suits and ties alongside their attorneys in Santa Clara County Superior Court as they were formally charged with felony assault and misdemeanor battery.
The charges reflect only the physical altercation itself that took place on a Sunday afternoon on Santana Row, an upscale residential and commercial district in San Jose. Prosecutors have not added a hate crime enhancement, despite the victims’ assertion that the attack was antisemitic, an allegation many in the Jewish community have followed closely. The two victims have told J. they were speaking Hebrew to each other before the March 8 attack and one recalled hearing an assailant utter “f***ing Jew” during it.
“The information we have at this point does not support the filing of a hate crime allegation,” O’Bryan Kenney, deputy district attorney for Santa Clara County, told reporters after Wednesday’s arraignment hearing. “The investigation has uncovered information to corroborate that this was an unjustified felony assault.”
Those gathered to support the three suspects — Chamaki, 32, of Morgan Hill, Roma Akoyans, 20, and Ramon Akoyans, 18, both of San Jose — were primarily local members of the Assyrian community who hugged and shook hands with the three men, who are of Assyrian heritage.
Among the supporters was a group of three women. One wore a Star of David necklace, alongside a watermelon pin, a sign of solidarity with Palestinians. Another wore a necklace in the shape of a future Palestinian state, and the third wore a kaffiyeh around her shoulders. The women — two of whom told J. they are Jewish — said they stand by the defendants and believe the attack was not antisemitic, contrary to the victims’ statements.
Lior Zeevi, 47, and Daniel Levy, 48, the two victims of the Santana Row attack, did not enter the courthouse but stood outside court together after the arraignment. They declined to speak with J.
During the hearing, Judge Hector E. Ramon heard arguments from Kenney, the prosecutor assigned to the case by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office. Kenney requested a criminal protective order that would bar the three defendants from any contact with Zeevi or Levy, out of concern for the victims’ safety.
Witness videos that circulated on social media and a 44-page police report chronicled a short but intense attack that began abruptly, with suspects pushing and repeatedly elbowing and punching the victims for about 20 seconds.
The attorneys representing the defendants pushed back in court against a protective order, noting that the three men have no criminal record and that Chamaki, as a lawyer, is a member of the California State Bar in good standing. They also said that the defendants self-surrendered to police and have been out on bonds — $35,000 for Chamaki, and $25,000 for each Akoyans — since mid-March.
The judge denied the request for a protective order, noting that those are intended for cases involving domestic violence and threats and have “no basis” in this instance.
The three defendants will be back in court to enter their pleas on July 23. Meanwhile, Dmitry Stadlin, the attorney representing the Akoyans, who are brothers, filed a subpoena seeking to obtain documents with information about Levy.
Zeevi could be back in court sooner than that. On May 20, a trial-setting hearing is scheduled in a case in which he is the defendant.
He faces a felony charge of criminal threats with a hate crime enhancement, stemming from an alleged road-rage confrontation in May 2025 in which he is accused of threatening to shoot a transgender woman and calling her a homophobic slur.
Kenney told reporters Wednesday that prosecutors are still uncovering evidence and motive in the Santana Row case.
“We are going to continue to investigate, to do whatever we can to establish what the motive was for this,” he said, “and to see that we can hold these individuals accountable for this brazen assault in Santana Row.”