Soccer coach charged with murder in death of 13-year-old California boy

Prosecutors in Los Angeles filed a murder charge with special circumstances Monday in the disappearance and death of Oscar Omar Hernandez, the 13-year-old boy who vanished after visiting a soccer coach in the Antelope Valley last month.

That coach, identified by Hernandez's family as Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino, was arrested last week by LAPD detectives investigating the teen's disappearance, although he was booked on an unrelated assault charge from last year.

LA authorities declined to share details on the circumstances surrounding the teen's death.

The separate charge stemmed from an alleged sex assault against a 16-year-old in Palmdale on Feb. 22, 2024 when Garcia Aquino was a youth travel soccer coach with the Hurricane Valley Boy Soccer Club in the Sylmar area, LA County Sheriff Robert Luna said.

"Garcia Aquino befriended a Sylmar family who allowed their juvenile son to stay with him at his residence in Palmdale," Luna said, adding the family soon filed a criminal report with the Palmdale Sheriff's Station.

Officials, who said there may be additional victims, asked people with information to come forward regardless their immigration status.

"If, for some reason, anybody fears coming forward even as a youth or family because you may be here undocumented, we 're not going to ask about that," Luna said. "Please, you need to come forward. We will assist you."

Garcia Aquino, 43, is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday after he had been expected to make an initial appearance on that assault case in court in Lancaster Monday. Deputies said he wasn't brought to court for medical reasons.

Garcia Aquino was held in custody with a $100,000 bail, the LA County Sheriff's Department said.

The case filed Monday charged Garcia Aquino with a single count of first-degree murder, with the special circumstance allegation that the murder happened during the commission of another violent felony, such as a robbery or rape.

Garcia Aquino faces at least life without the possibility of parole on the murder charge along with six years in prison for the sex assault charge.

LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who announced his office is seeking the death penalty again last month, said he would consider seeking the capital punishment for Garcia Aquino.

"Our role is to bring justice to this family and to hold the person responsible for these brutal, heinous, unspeakable acts, hold them accountable, prosecute and punish them to the full extend of the law," Hochman said.

Several law enforcement sources told NBCLA the investigation into the death had been handed over to the LA County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau because it was believed Hernandez was killed in the Antelope Valley, an area patrolled by the Sheriff's Department.

Hernandez's family reported him missing on Sunday, March 30, after he didn't return from a visit with the coach in the Lancaster/Palmdale area and didn't answer calls.

The boy's body was found last week off a road in Oxnard.

The missing persons case was investigated by the LAPD with assistance from FBI agents.

The LA County District Attorney's Office did not respond to questions last week about why a criminal charge in the 2024 assault case wasn't filed before the Hernandez investigation focused on Garcia Aquino.

The law enforcement sources said they believed there were other victims who'd been attacked by Garcia Aquino.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles issued a statement Tuesday in response to questions about Garcia Aquino's immigration status.

"This was an avoidable crime and the result of failed border policies," said United States Attorney Bill Essayli. "We cannot and will not tolerate illegal aliens who flout our nation’s immigration laws then prey on children. Federal law enforcement will continue to be very aggressive in locating, apprehending, and prosecuting criminal illegal aliens."