Youth soccer coach charged with murder in death of 13-year-old boy
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A youth soccer coach has been charged with the murder of a 13-year-old Los Angeles boy whose body was found along a road in Oxnard last week.
Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino, 43, was charged with murder with special circumstances Monday.
“Mr. Garcia Aquino murdered 13-year-old Oscar Omar Hernandez on March, 28,” Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman announced at a news conference.
Law enforcement found a body in Oxnard that matches the description of a 13-year-old boy who failed to return home to the San Fernando Valley from a trip to Lancaster, police say.
Garcia Aquino was a youth travel soccer coach with the Hurricane Valley boys soccer club in the Sylmar area, and worked with different age divisions, according to authorities.
Los Angeles Police Department detectives working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation recovered the teen’s body beside a desolate stretch of Ventura County roadway on Wednesday.
Authorities declined to state the manner in which the boy was killed. However, the charges against Garcia Aquino include a special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission or attempted commission of lewd acts with a child, making him eligible for the death penalty.
“We have recently instituted a new death penalty policy in which we will be evaluating whether or not the death penalty is appropriate for this particular case,” Hochman said.
Hernandez’s family had reported the teen missing on Sunday, March 30, after he failed to return home from visiting Garcia Aquino at the coach’s Lancaster residence.
The teen, who lived in Sun Valley, had taken a train to the Antelope Valley the day before he was reported missing. When the boy’s brother tried to phone him later that day, the coach answered the boy’s cellphone and said the boy was busy and could not talk.
According to the family and investigators, Daniel Hernandez, the boy’s father, later called the coach and insisted he drop the teen off near the family’s home.
After the boy’s disappearance, investigators used data from cellular devices, cellphone towers, and other tracking systems and determined that the suspect visited the Oxnard area near McGrath State Beach and the Santa Clara River, according to law enforcement sources, who were not authorized to discuss the probe.
A foot search by LAPD investigators and FBI agents led to the discovery of the boy’s body alongside North Harbor Boulevard, north of West Gonzales Road. Investigators did not specify the cause of death.
Authorities also discovered that Garcia Aquino had been investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department last year for allegations of an unrelated sexual assault.
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Last Wednesday, as investigators searched for the teenager, Garcia Aquino was charged with assault with intent to commit rape in connection with that Feb. 22, 2024 incident. The coach allegedly “took advantage of a position of trust and confidence in committing the assault,” according to criminal records filed in court. Garcia Aquino missed an arraignment scheduled for Monday.
“Mr. Garcia Aquino faces at least life without the possibility of parole on the murder charge and six years in prison with respect to the felony count of assault with intent to commit a lewd act,” Hochman said. “These cases are tragic, and the Hernandez family, you have our deepest sympathy for a loss that words cannot even begin to describe.”
Multiple law enforcement sources who said they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case said that Garcia Aquino was an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador.
Garcia Aquino was also the subject of an LAPD investigation into sexual assault of a minor in 2022 but was never charged because at that point the alleged victim declined to testify against him, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
On Thursday, the family of the boy held a vigil in the area where his body was discovered. “We had that person at our home,” his sister Alejandra told KTLA through a translator. “He even helped us look for Oscar.”
Gladys Bautista, the boy’s mother, wore a soccer jersey and said her son “didn’t need to be treated like an animal. That was my son,” she said in Spanish.
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At Monday’s press conference, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said he was seeking additional victims in the child sexual abuse case.
Luna said that case stemmed from accusations that Garcia Aquino “befriended a Sylmar family who allowed their juvenile son to stay with him at his residence in Palmdale. The family subsequently filed a criminal report with the Palmdale Sheriff station alleging sexual abuse of their child.” The victim was a 16-year-old boy, Luna said.
During the investigation, detectives learned that there was another unrelated child sexual abuse case being handled by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill division involving Garcia Aquino, Luna said. The sheriff encouraged people to come forward and said immigration status is not an issue.
Hochman said the reason for the delay in filing charges in the 2024 assault was because such crimes must be thoroughly investigated. “You have to actually go through all the different parts of an investigation before you ever get to an arrest warrant,” Hochman said.
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