A youth soccer coach has been charged with murder after a 13-year-old on his team was reported missing by his family and later found dead, officials announced on Monday.
Oscar Omar Hernandez, of the San Fernando Valley, was reported missing by his family on March 30 after he “failed to return home from visiting an acquaintance in Lancaster,” Los Angeles police said last week.
Oscar Omar Hernandez is seen in a photo on a shirt worn by a family member during a press briefing in Los Angeles, April 7, 2025.
KABC
The teen had gotten on a train to Lancaster two days earlier to visit his soccer coach — 43-year-old Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino — and was never heard from again, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman.
Oscar was found dead on Wednesday in the city of Oxnard, west of Los Angeles, off to the side of a road near Leo Carrillo State Beach, Hochman said. Garcia-Aquino is “accused of killing Oscar and then dumping his body in Oxnard,” the district attorney’s office said.
Garcia-Aquino was charged with murder with a special circumstance that alleges the murder occurred during the “commission or attempted commission of performance of a lewd and lascivious act upon” a child under the age of 14, according to the complaint.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office displays a bulletin featuring photos of Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino during a press briefing, April 7, 2025.
KABC
The complaint was amended on Tuesday to also charge Garcia-Aquino with assault with the intent to commit a sexual offense and lewd act upon a child 14 or 15 years old for allegedly sexually assaulting a teenager at his then-home in Sylmar on Dec. 10, 2022, the district attorney’s office said.
The suspect has separately also been charged with a felony count of assault with intent to commit a lewd act against a 16-year-old boy, Hochman said. Garcia-Aquino was arrested on Wednesday on that charge, which stemmed from an alleged incident in Palmdale on Feb. 22, 2024, authorities said.
“These cases are tragic, and the Hernandez family, you have our deepest sympathy for a loss that words cannot even begin to describe,” Hochman said at a press briefing on Monday. “Our role, though, is to bring justice to this family and to hold the person responsible for these brutal, heinous, unspeakable, unthinkable acts, hold them accountable and prosecute and punish them to the full extent of the law.”
Oscar Omar Hernandez is seen in an undated photo.
Courtesy Alejandra Hernandez
Hochman said he does not have any details on how Oscar was killed at this time.
Garcia-Aquino’s arraignment and plea on the charges have been postponed to April 30, following a request for a continuance by his attorney during his first court appearance on Tuesday.
If convicted, the suspect faces a sentence of at least life without the possibility of parole for the murder charge or the death penalty, Hochman said. A decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made at a later date, the district attorney’s office said.
He also faces six years in prison if convicted in the separate assault case, Hochman said.
The suspect is an undocumented immigrant, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which said on social media Tuesday that Oscar was an “innocent child who was exploited and killed by this depraved illegal alien who should have never been in this country.”
“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, child predators, pedophiles and murderers will be hunted down and removed from America’s communities,” it added.
The family of Oscar Omar Hernandez is seen during a press briefing in Los Angeles, April 7, 2025.
KABC
Authorities are asking any alleged victims of the suspect or anyone with information to come forward.
“There’s always a fear that there’s more victims, and we want to make sure we account for everybody that’s out there,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at the briefing.
Garcia-Aquina was a youth travel soccer coach with a boys’ soccer club in the Sylmar area, according to Luna. He had no reported criminal history, the sheriff said.
“If for some reason anybody fears coming forward, even as a youth or a family, because you may be here undocumented, we’re not going to ask about that,” Luna said. “Please. You need to come forward. We will assist you — whether it’s our department, the Los Angeles Police Department, the LA County District Attorney’s Office — any of us are going to wrap our arms around you and make sure that you get the appropriate services. We guide you the right way and we protect you as well.”
Family and friends hold a vigil for Oscar Omar Hernandez in Los Angeles, April 3, 2025.
KABC
Oscar’s family members attended the press briefing but did not make a public comment.
Family and friends of Oscar paid tribute to the teen on Thursday at the site where the body was found on the side of a road in Oxnard.
“He didn’t need to be treated like an animal. That was my son,” his mother, Gladys Bautista, cried out in Spanish, ABC News’ Los Angeles station KABC reported.
