A California soccer coach has been charged with murder in the disappearance and death of a 13-year-old boy who was found dead on the side of the road after visiting the coach last month.
Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino, 43, was arrested last week on an unrelated sexual assault charge in Lancaster from 2024, KNBC reported, and was expected to appear in court on that charge on Monday. Deputies said he wasn’t brought in because of unspecified medical reasons.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said at a news conference that Garcia Aquino had been charged with murder with a special circumstance for the death of Oscar Omar Hernandez. Additionally, he was charged with assault with intent to commit a lewd act against a 16-year-old boy in February 2024 in Palmdale.
Authorities said they were seeking further victims of Garcia Aquino after learning about the earlier case.
Hernandez was last seen on March 28 when his family dropped him off at a transit station so he could go to Garcia Aquino’s home, where he was to help make soccer jerseys, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
“His soccer coach made soccer jerseys,” his sister, Alejandra said. “He had taken other soccer teammates to help him, and that’s why my brother went.”
“Then at 9 p.m. my brother called Oscar, but the coach answered. He said Oscar couldn’t answer because his hands were full of paint.”
Garcia Aquino was expected to bring the boy home the next morning, but he didn’t. The family later got a text from Hernandez’s phone saying he was in North Hollywood, and that’s when they started looking for him.
Los Angeles Police eventually brought in the FBI, and last Wednesday, they found his body i a ditch near a state beach in Oxnard.
Hochman said that Garcia Aquino would be eligible for the death penalty if convicted of the special circumstance murder but that his office had not decided if they would seek it. He will be arraigned on Tuesday.
