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A teenage boy, who claims to have been sexually assaulted by a soccer coach charged with another teen’s murder, said the man drugged him and acted inappropriately in 2024.
The 17-year-old, who wished to be identified as John, tearfully described the traumatic chain of events after initially meeting Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino through a soccer club three years ago.
Garcia Aquino was charged with first-degree murder for the death of 13-year-old Oscar Omar Hernandez, in addition to the charges linked to the 2024 attack.
The San Fernando Valley boy said when he saw the 41-year-old’s picture on TV, he was shocked.
“He allegedly killed this young boy. I thought it could have been me,” the teen said.
John explained while the coach was distant at first, the 41-year-old eventually warmed up to him and often bought him drinks and food.
When his family was going through a “turmoil” in 2024, the then-16-year-old decided to move in with Garcia Aquino in Sylmar then later in Palmdale with his dad’s consent despite his mom’s opposition.
“I guess she got some sort of weird vibe off of him,” John said.
One day, while John was spending time with Garcia Aquino at his home, the coach handed him a glass of orange juice, which made him “sleepy tired.”
After living with the coach and his son for more than a year, one night, John said he was awakened by unsettling feelings.
“He tried pulling down my shorts. I woke up and I punched him,” John recalled the event in February 2024. “Then he told me it was all a joke.”
John said when he went back to sleep, he felt the coach was trying to pull down his shorts again.
“I was freaking out. I didn’t know what to do. I saw my shorts on backwards,” the teen said.
The teen eventually called his mom and LA County Sheriff’s deputies, who conducted a test to confirm there were drugs in John’s system.
John showed us the hospital discharge paperwork, showing the emergency room doctor’s diagnosis of sexual assault of an adolescent, positive urine screen for an unspecified drug and toxic encephalopathy meaning impaired brain function.
John said he was unaware of any further investigation by the Sheriff’s Department.
Looking back, John thought Garcia Aquino was trying to isolate him from other teenagers.
“He didn’t want me to play with other kids,” recalled John, saying he no longer trusts people.
Despite reporting Garcia Aquino in 2024, it took more than a year for John to know Garcia Aquino was finally charged.
“Knowing what happened, it feels like I got ignored. Like if I wasn’t a human being,” John said. “They just left it open. Then they had to get to a teenage boy getting killed.”
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