Los Angeles soccer coach pleads not guilty to murder in death of teenager

A former youth soccer coach pleaded not guilty on Friday to a murder charge in the death of a 13-year-old boy, one of his players.

Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino is charged with murder for the death of Oscar "Omar" Hernandez last year, along with the special-circumstance allegation of murder during the commission or attempted commission of a lewd act on a child.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office did not seek the death penalty against Garcia-Aquino, but if he is convicted as charged, he could face a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Garcia-Aquino faces a dozen other charges, all related to child sexual abuse that happened between September 2022 and July 2023. In 2025, prosecutors charged him with assaulting a 16-year-old boy.

Hernandez was allegedly sexually abused and killed by Garcia-Aquino in March 2025. Investigators found the teen's body by the side of an Oxnard road a few days after his family reported him missing.

Hernandez's family said Garcia-Aquino owned the Huracan Valley Boys Soccer Club and invited the teenage boy to his home in Lancaster. 

"His soccer coach made soccer jerseys," Omar's older sister Alejandra Hernandez said earlier. "He had taken other soccer teammates to help him, and that's why my brother went." The teen never returned home.

The Ventura County Medical Examiner classified Hernandez's death as a homicide, caused by acute ethanol intoxication. It was noted that there was no evidence that Hernandez was an experienced drinker and that the cause of death was very unusual for someone his age.

More allegations against Garcia-Aquino began to surface after Hernandez's death.