Twins charged after Good Samaritan beaten to death; survivor speaks out

FRESNO, Calif. -- A Good Samaritan was killed, and now the woman he saved tells her story of the rescue and the beating she thought would end her life.

"I thought I was going to die," said Tenille Alexander. "If it wasn't for that man that rolled by on that bike, I would've died."

A set of Fresno twins is charged with the murder of Nathan Halsted, the man who intervened. Gerald and Jared Smith didn't actually deal the final blow to Halsted. A car did that. But city street cameras recorded them beating up a woman, and when Halsted stepped in, they punched and kicked him until he couldn't get up from the street where he was killed.

Jared Smith tried to hide from a news camera in court, but neither he nor his brother could avoid the surveillance camera that recorded the act that got them locked up. The images aren't perfectly visible, but Tenille Alexander has a crystal clear memory of what happened last June. Alexander says she could see rage in Jared's eyes as she tried to walk past them and they cut her off.

"I remember telling him I'm a girl, not to do this because I could see it," she said. "I felt it."

"Why'd you say that?" asked prosecutor Sam Dalesandro.

"Because I thought they were going to beat me up," she said.

She was right. She says one of the Smiths initially tried to stop the other, but eventually joined in. She had a hard time identifying which brother did what, but she knew one was taller than the other. But when they were forced to stand in court, Gerald -- the taller one -- hunched over. Alexander says the teens asked her for money and when she refused, they went on the attack.

"I was just getting blows, feet, and I know by this time it was both of them," Alexander said.

Alexander says she lost a tooth in the beating, and her neck and jaw are sometimes still sore. The video shows Nathan Halsted rolling up on a bicycle. As soon as he asked what they were doing to Alexander, the Smiths turned their attention to him, and after a flurry of punches and kicks, he was down.

"If he would've never came by on that bicycle and said something, I would be in his position right now," Alexander said. "That man saved my life."

One defense attorney said the Smiths don't believe they committed murder. A judge decided Wednesday afternoon there is enough evidence to put them on trial for that crime.