It was difficult for Alejandra Hernandez to say the words. “My brother’s soccer coach got him drunk to sexually assault him, and the alcohol ultimately caused Oscar’s death.” Hernandez, in an exclusive interview with the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol, shared for the first time since receiving the findings of the coroner’s autopsy report, the painful challenges their family now struggles with.
Two months after the body of the popular young athlete, Oscar Omar Hernandez, was found along a road in Ventura County, the Hernandez family finally received the answers that confirmed the suspicions that pointed to his soccer coach. The Ventura County Medical Examiner classified the teen’s death as a homicide due to acute ethanol intoxication.
“We are devastated,” said Alejandra Hernandez, her voice breaking. “Oscar was just a kid and didn’t drink. The alcohol was too much, and his heart stopped.”
The medical examiner’s findings, announced June 30, aligned with the charges against coach Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino filed in April. When Oscar went missing, the coach lied, telling the family he had dropped him off close to home after he had come to his home to work on soccer shirts. Aquino later pretended to assist the family’s tireless search for the 13-year-old.
After Oscar’s body was found, disturbing information about the coach made its way to the Hernandez family.
“We learned that the coach gave alcohol to his young players who visited his home,” said Alejandra Hernandez. “We heard he once paid $20 to one of his young players to drink alcohol.”
Charged with Murder
Garcia-Aquino, coach for the Huracan Valley boys’ soccer club, was charged with first-degree murder in Oscar’s death April 7, over a week after the boy failed to return home after meeting him at the coach’s house in Lancaster. Tragically, his lifeless body was discovered in Oxnard five days later. The charge includes special circumstances associated with the allegation that the murder occurred during the commission or attempted commission of lewd acts with a child. This special circumstance makes Garcia-Aquino eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The coach allegedly killed the boy on March 28, two days before Oscar was reported missing, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Two More Victims?
The coach also faces additional felony charges for reportedly sexually assaulting two other teens, one in Sylmar in December of 2022 and another in Palmdale in February of last year.
In light of those counts, Alejandra Hernandez feels authorities failed her brother.
“Oscar’s death could have been prevented, but [Garcia-Aquino] was allowed to continue working with children,” she said.
Garcia-Aquino did not have a criminal history before the February 2024 assault charge, according to LA County Sheriff Robert Luna. However, the coach wasn’t taken into custody for the Palmdale incident until more than a year later, on the same day Oscar’s body was found. Authorities have cited a backlog of thousands of cases as the reason for the delay in filing charges, attributing it to a court staffing crisis and updates to the electronic filing system.
That does not comfort Alejandra Hernandez.
“My little brother had to die for the coach to be arrested,” she said.
Death and Raids
As if Oscar’s passing was not traumatic enough for the Hernandezes, the immigrant family now also has to contend with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids that hit the valley in mid-June.
Since early April, Oscar’s parents and siblings began making weekly trips to Oxnard to visit and tend to a make-shift memorial built where the teen’s body was found. But the immigration crackdown stopped the family from making those pilgrimages.
“The raids meant danger in making those trips; we rarely left the house,” said Alejandra Hernandez. Even visiting Oscar’s burial site in a Mission Hills cemetery was reconsidered by the Hernandezes, worried about getting detained and deported.
Those concerns have eased a bit for Oscar’s parents, Gladys Bautista and Oscar Daniel Hernandez, both from Honduras, after they recently obtained a special immigration visa, known as a U-Visa. The permit allows the relatives of victims of a violent crime and sexual abuse, who cooperate with police investigations and judicial proceedings, to remain in the United States with temporary immigration status.
“My mom still goes to the cemetery regularly, but she remains worried about the raids,” says the daughter.
“[President Donald Trump] does not care about us immigrants,” she added. “And even those who are legally here are scared of being detained and deported.”
Social Media Tormented Oscar’s Father
More than three months after Oscar’s passing, his parents are still struggling with the nightmare. It isn’t easy to process that their loving son, who could light up a room, is gone. His mother decided to seek grief counseling.
“Mom was suffering terribly and needed help,” said her daughter. “I’m glad she’s getting therapy.”
However, Alejandra Hernandez is concerned about her father and her two younger brothers, who are in their twenties.
“In our Latino culture and communities, men often try to cope with loss and pain on their own,” stated Alejandra Hernandez. “My father feels guilty about what happened to Oscar.”
He dropped his enthusiastic son off at the Metro, which would take him to Lancaster. The coach told Oscar he would pay him for his help making the team’s shirts.
Social media has exacerbated the situation. Oscar’s tragic death drew significant national media coverage, and the reactions online have been harsh, according to Alejandra Hernandez.
“People make negative and abusive comments, blaming my dad for his son’s misfortune,” she explained. She noted that he appears to be struggling with deep depression, even while he tries to conceal it.
“People are quick to pass judgment without knowing what really happened,” she emphasized.
Alejandra Hernandez described the coach as a “perverse manipulator” of young boys and their families.
“Parents trusted him because, like them, Mario [Garcia Aquino] also had kids and had years coaching teens and adults,” she said. He visited their home and engraced himself with the family. Besides offering work to her brother, the coach bragged about having a swimming pool at his Lancaster home, according to the 29-year-old woman.
“Oscar loved to swim and was fascinated by pools,” she said. “The coach told us that he made t-shirts for soccer players and that other youths used to help him with the task. He also said that other teens would join Oscar in Lancaster.”
She added, “They were all lies.”
Searching for More Victims
Alejandra Hernandez is convinced that there are more victims.
“We have been told that a former player confided in friends about being assaulted by Garcia-Aquino when he was a teen,” she shared, adding “that person doesn’t want to come out publicly or talk to the police.”
Attorney Michael S. Carrillo, who represents the Hernandez family, emphasized that victims of sexual abuse can report anonymously to the police while having their identities protected during court proceedings.
Alejandra Hernandez urges others to come forward, saying, “We ask victims to share with police detectives what they know and what they experienced with the coach. Garcia-Aquino must pay for everything he has done.”
Authorities are encouraging other possible victims of Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino to call the LAPD at (818) 374-5415 or the LA County Sheriff’s Department at (877) 710-5273.
Anonymous tips can be provided via the LA Regional Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.lacrimestoppers.org
Diana Martinez contributed to this article.