Miss Miami Lakes Vanessa Barcelo Speaking Out After Assault Arrest

Miss Miami Lakes Vanessa Barcelo was back in court for a hearing Friday as she faces criminal charges for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

"It's hard you know, taking it day by day so I'm just day by day really," Barcelo said after the hearing.

Barcelo, 26, was arrested in December after police say she was involved in an attack on a man during a drunken party at her Hialeah home. Barcelo claims she's innocent of attacking the man with an aluminum baseball bat.

Detectives say Barcelo, a Miss Florida USA 2017 contestant, had a party at her home promoting her baking business. At some point towards the end of the night, the arrest report says, Barcelo was intoxicated. She asked one of her guests to leave and as he did she followed him out with the bat and allegedly struck the victim on his shoulder.

Other guests went outside too and one of them allegedly knocked the victim to the ground. The arrest report says he then started punching the victim and so did Barcelo.

"I'm waiting to see what's going to happen, just doing what we need to do to prove our innocence," Barcelo said Friday.

"It's still an ongoing investigation and we'd like to say that the State has been great, they've spoken to our witnesses and it's still ongoing," defense attorney James Demiles said.

Barcelo is due back in court for her arraignment next week. Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.

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