India Ali, during her interview with KTLA, Wednesday recalls her ordeal

“I thought what if they come back and see I’m alive and really try to kill me? I felt they left me for dead but by the good grace of God I woke up,” Ali, 32, said.
She grabbed her purse but couldn’t find her car keys or phone inside. That’s when she called 911.

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India Ali from Inglewood in the  Los Angeles area learned firsthand that looks can be deceiving after a promising first date with ahandsome stranger whom she met on Instagram. almost cost her her life. he beat her beat her to a pulp and robbed her on their first date last July.
The victim, India Ali, 32, first saw pictures of James Baker, 27, on Instagram.
“He didn’t really look like a creep from his pictures. He looked like he had it going on,” Ali told CW affiliate KTLA.
After perusing his photos, Ali agreed to go on a date with Baker, which Baker documented on social media. He posted several videos of the pair drinking and partying at a restaurant, before luring Ali back to his room at the Westin hotel near the Los Angeles airport.

James Baker and India in the Best Westin hotel elevator after dinner. A few hours laterhHer handsome date, whom she met on Instagram, had her fighting for her life

caught on Camera: James Baker has the valet deliver India Ali’s car and he escapes with her car and purse after leaving her for unconcious in the room he had rented himself

At dinner Ali said,  she drank too much and has only fuzzy memories of leaving the restaurant. She doesn’t recall how they ended up back at the Westin hotel near LAX. She has only a sliver of a memory of the brutal beating.

Lucky to be alive: Court documents show the damage in the aftermath of India Ali’s brutal beating, “She was bleeding through her ears, mouth and nose because of the blood building up inside her brain,” according to Los Angeles DA, David Berger

“I remember standing up in the hotel and he was choking me,” she said Wednesday.
Ali spent a week in the intensive care unit, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney David Berger said.
“The amount of blows she received caused her brain to basically twist in her skull, causing veins that connect her brain to shear,” Berger said. “She was bleeding through her ears, mouth and nose because of the blood building up inside her brain.”
Berger said police were able to track Ali’s cell phone and found Baker with her stolen car at a nearby Courtyard hotel. investigators discovered that Baker had prior convictions and was on bail for allegedly using fake credit cards.
He was convicted of felony assault in April and faces a maximum of 10 years and four months in prison, Berger said.

India Ali said the the ordeal has left her feeling depressed and drained. When she testified in April, she felt victimized again, she said.
She said Baker’s defense lawyer asked her, “Haven’t you been convicted of petty theft?”
“I said, ‘No,’ and they went to sidebar. Then the lawyer came back and apologized in front of the jury and said I had never been convicted of petty theft,” Ali recalled.
In a bid to impugn the victim’s character, the defense attorney d if Ali ever brought her 14-year-old son and toddler daughter to “strip clubs.”
Ali previously worked as an exotic dancer, and the lawyer apparently wanted the jury to know that, she suggested.

In court, the suspect, a convcted felon almost twice the size of his victim, claimed sheattacked him first.
“He claimed I hit him with a bottle. If it was true, wouldn’t I be in jail? If he really got busted on his head and got stitches, where are they?” she asked.
It also did not explain how he came to be in posession of her stolen vehicle, her purse or her phone. Berger called Baker’s claim ” a complete lie.”
“He gave a one hour and 20 minute interview to police and never mentioned anything to do with her hitting him with a bottle. When he took the stand, he testified he had blood streaming down his head. But when you watch the hotel video from 2:07 that morning, there’s not a drop of blood, and the camera in the elevator was right on his head,” Berger said.

Ex-con James Baker was proven to have been using social media to case potential crime targets 

Ali said she plans to make a victim impact statement at Baker’s sentencing, now set for June 5.
“For all the people who said this was my fault or I deserved it, I want to show them it’s not my fault and I can get back on my feet,” she said. “I’m going to have these marks on me forever, but I can be strong.”
Ali said she’s grateful she didn’t die and wants others to be careful about dates with strangers they meet online.
“I don’t want anybody else to go through anything like this. I’m trying to put the word out for the younger generation. Don’t meet up with someone you don’t know like this. Just don’t do it,” she said.