DES MOINES, Iowa — A Des Moines man who attacked another man with a baseball bat, resulting in life-threatening injuries, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Tuesday.

After an Iowa Cubs baseball game in April 2023, Joshua Jordan Crouch, 34, stopped at a Des Moines liquor store. According to court records, surveillance video captured the victim, 37-year-old Mario Zamora Yepez, parking his vehicle next to Crouch’s vehicle in the liquor store parking lot. The video goes on to show the two men talking to each other when Crouch grabbed a wooden bat out of his car, which he claimed to have purchased at the Cubs game, and struck Zamora in the head. Crouch was then seen on video getting in his car and driving away.

According to court records, Zamora suffered life-threatening injuries in the attack. The Polk County Attorney’s Office said in a press release that during disposition Assistant County Attorney Kevin Bell said without the life-saving procedures conducted by a brain surgeon Zamora would have died.

Despite arguing the attack was in self-defense, in September a Polk County jury found Crouch guilty of attempted murder and willful injury causing serious injury, which carry a maximum sentence of 25 years and 10 years respectively.

On Tuesday District Judge David Nelmark ordered Crouch to serve his sentences concurrently (at the same time) for a maximum of 25 years in prison. In a press release the Polk County Attorney’s Office said Judge Nelmark decided on concurrent sentences because the two charges were for the same attack, not separate attacks. Crouch must serve a minimum of 17 1/2 years in prison.

According to the attorney’s office, Zamora died on May 3, 2024 after falling from a ladder.

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