A teenage boy who claims he was sexually assaulted by a football coach charged with another teenage murder charge said the man drugged him and acted inappropriately in 2024.
The 17-year-old, who wanted to be identified as John, described the series of events in tears after meeting Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino through a football club three years ago, and first meeting Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino.
Garcia Aquino was charged with first-degree murder in the death of 13-year-old Oscar Omar Hernandez, in addition to charges related to the 2024 attack.
The San Fernando Valley boy said he was shocked when he saw a photo of the 41-year-old on television.
“He said he killed this boy. I thought it might have been me,” the teen said.
John explained while the coach was initially far away, but the 41-year-old eventually warmed him up and often bought him drinks and food.
When his family was experiencing “confusion” in 2024, the 16-year-old decided to move to Palmdale with Garcia Aquino of Silmer, despite his mother’s opposition.
“I think she got some kind of weird vibe from him,” John said.
One day, while John was spending time with Garcia Aquino at home, the coach handed him a glass of orange juice, which gave him “sleepy fatigue.”
John said he awakened to anxiety after living with his coach and his son for more than a year, and then staying overnight.
“He tried to pull my shorts down. I woke up and punched him,” John recalled the event in February 2024. “Then he said it was all a joke.”
John said he felt his coach was trying to pull his shorts down again when he returned to sleep.
“I went crazy. I didn’t know what to do. I looked at the shorts in the back,” the teen said.
The teen eventually called his mother and the LA County Sheriff’s deputies to test him to make sure John’s system had drugs.
John showed discharge documents, emergency room doctors have diagnosed sexual assault during puberty, and a positive urine screening for toxic encephalopathy, meaning unspecified drugs and toxic encephalopathy, which means brain dysfunction.
John said he was unaware of further investigation by the Sheriff’s Office.
Looking back, John thought Garcia Aquino was trying to isolate him from other teenagers.
“He didn’t want me to play with other kids,” John recalls, saying he no longer trusts people.
Despite reporting Garcia Aquino in 2024, it took John more than a year for him to learn that Garcia Aquino was eventually indicted.
“Knowing what happened makes me feel ignored. If I wasn’t human,” John said. “They kept it open. Then they had to reach the teenage boy who was killed.”
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