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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California youth soccer coach charged with killing a 13-year-old boy last month has also been accused of assaulting at least two other teens in recent years, prosecutors said.
Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino is charged with killing Oscar Omar Hernandez and then dumping his body along a roadside, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said. Garcia-Aquino briefly appeared in court Tuesday, where his arraignment was scheduled for April 30.
Garcia-Aquino, 43, was charged with one count of murder, with the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission or attempted commission of lewd acts with a child. The charges make him eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors on Tuesday also charged him with a sexual offense or lewd act upon a child involving a teenager around 14 or 15 years old at Garcia-Aquino’s then-home in the LA suburb of Sylmar in 2022; and one felony count of assault with the intent to commit a sexual offense involving a 16-year-old boy in Palmdale, north of Los Angeles, in February 2024.
The 13-year-old boy was reported missing by his family March 30 after he boarded a train to visit the coach in Lancaster, north of Los Angeles, prosecutors said Monday. His body was found several days later in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles.
The boy's mother, Gladys Bautista, told ABC 7 in Los Angeles that her son was a happy kid who loved soccer.
“He didn’t need to be treated like an animal. That was my son,” Bautista said during a news conference last week.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in an email to The Associated Press that Garcia-Aquino is from El Salvador and that they have requested local law enforcement to notify ICE before he is released and hold him until he can be placed into federal custody for deportation.
California’s sanctuary law generally prohibits cooperation between law enforcement and immigration officials but makes exceptions for those convicted of certain violent crimes. Asked if it would notify ICE if Garcia-Aquino is released, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in an email: “The suspect’s immigration status is not part of the investigation.”
The LA County Public Defender's Office, which is representing Garcia-Aquino, offered condolences to the victim's family.
“We will be reviewing the evidence in this case and will vigorously defend against these serious charges,” Angela Cheung with the office's Major Cases Unit said in a statement. “At this time, we have no further comment.”
Garcia-Aquino was a youth travel coach with the Hurricane Valley boys soccer club in the Sylmar area, and worked with different age divisions, Sheriff Robert Luna said. The Associated Press left phone and text messages with the club Wednesday.
Many youth soccer coaches take classes to be licensed through the California State Soccer Association — South, known as Cal South. The Associated Press left a voicemail with the organization to see if the club had required Aquino-Garcia to be licensed through its program, which requires coaches to have their fingerprints cleared by the Department of Justice before they are allowed on the field with youth.
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Associated Press writers Julie Watson in San Diego and Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
