OAN Staff Abril Elfi
12:34 PM – Wednesday, April 9, 2025
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has confirmed that the California-based youth soccer coach accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy and murdering a 13-year-old boy he coached is an undocumented migrant.
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Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino, 43, the suspect, is also accused of attacking a 14-year-old boy at his then-home in Sylmar on December 10th, 2022. However, there is not as much information regarding that particular case.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman had announced the charges at a news conference, with the murder victim’s family in attendance.
The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation of murder while committing or attempting to commit a lewd act with a child, with the District Attorney’s Office expected to later determine “whether or not the death penalty is appropriate for this particular case,” Hochman stated — as reported by ABC 7.
“Sexual predators who target victims for their own gratification will be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Hochman said.
Additionally, he was arrested on Wednesday from another case in Palmdale for purportedly sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy on February 22nd, 2024. Garcia Aquino was later charged with one felony count of assault with intent to conduct a sexual offense, and he faces up to six years in state prison just for the crimes involving the 16-year-old boy.
Back on Tuesday, Garcia Aquino appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom in connection to the murder of Oscar Omar Hernandez, 13.
According to prosecutors, Garcia Aquino killed 13-year-old Oscar on March 28th in Lancaster and later dumped his body in Ventura County.
Prosecutors also alleged that on that day, Oscar had agreed to board a Metrolink train to Lancaster to meet up with the soccer coach at a complex. However, when he didn’t return home that night, his family became worried — calling and searching for him. He was then “reported missing by his family two days later.”
“No parent should ever have to endure the unimaginable pain and sorrow of learning their child has been murdered,” Hochman continued. “Oscar simply boarded a train and little did he or his family know that he would never return.”
Investigators noted that they found the 13-year-old boy’s body on the side of the road in Oxnard on Wednesday.
U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli stated that the tragic death was “an avoidable crime and the result of failed border policies.”
“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.”
Garcia Aquino entered the United States illegally as a “getaway” at an “unknown time and location,” and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has had no previous encounters with him — according to a senior ICE source who spoke with Fox News this week.
ICE has since filed a detainer against him at the Los Angeles County Jail.
“Thirteen-year-old Oscar ‘Omar’ Hernandez was an innocent child who was exploited and killed by this depraved illegal alien who should have never been in this country,” added Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. “Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, child predators, pedophiles and murderers will be hunted down and removed from America’s communities.”
Garcia Aquino is now facing a maximum sentence of the death penalty or life without parole.
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