Friday, July 22, 2011

Two Men Charged in Bryan Stow Beating Case

Two Men Charged in Bryan Stow Beating Case

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PHOTO: Bryan Stow and children
PHOTO: Bryan Stow and children (Family Photo)

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- Prosecutors have charged two men with mayhem and assault in connection with the brutal beating of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow.

Louie Sanchez, 29, and Marvin Norwood, 30, were taken into custody Thursday morning.

They are charged with one count each of mayhem, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury, all felonies.

Sanchez also was charged with two misdemeanor counts of battery stemming from a separate incident the same day.

The complaint alleged the both men personally inflicted great bodily injury on Stow.

The defendants are expected to appear for arraignment Monday in Department 30 of Los Angeles Superior Court.

They are being held in lieu of $500,000 bail, according to police records.

If convicted, Sanchez faces a maximum nine years in prison and Norwood faces a possible maximum eight-year term, according to the district attorney's office.

Both men have violent pasts.

In March 2006, Norwood was convicted of inflicting bodily injury on a spouse or partner, court records show.

Three years earlier, Louie Sanchez was found guilty of the same crime and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, according to court records.

In 2004, Sanchez was convicted of carrying a loaded firearm, while Norwood was found guilty of disturbing the peace in 2000, the records show.

A third suspect in the case, Dorene Sanchez, 31, also was arrested Thursday on suspicion of being an accessory after the fact to a felony.

Charges against her are pending.

Stow, paramedic and father of two, was jumped while walking through the Dodger Stadium parking lot with two friends after the Dodgers’ opening-day victory over the Giants in March.

According to witnesses, at least one of his attackers fled in a light four-door sedan driven by a woman.

The woman, who was seen with a 10-year-old boy, was wearing a white Andre Ethier jersey with his number 16 on the back, police said.

In May, police arrested 31-year-old Giovanni Ramirez in connection with the attack.

At the time, investigators expressed confidence that Ramirez was the primary aggressor in the attack, according to LAPD Chief Beck.

He was booked for assault with a deadly weapon, and ordered held on $1 million bail.

But Ramirez was never charged in the Stow case.

A judge ruled there was not enough evidence linking him to the crime.

He was however sentenced to 10 months for a parole violation.

Ramirez' attorney, Anthony Brooklier, spoke to KTLA Friday.

"We don't expect an apology," Brooklier said.

"Frankly, it's to the LAPD's credit that they kept investigating the case. They didn't try to pound a round peg into a square hole."

However, Ramirez family isn't as forgiving.

At a news conference Friday, they expressed anger and frustration over the way Los Angeles police handled the case.

Soledad Gonzalez, Ramirez’s mother, said police never should have publicly released her son’s photo until the case had been fully investigated.

"I got very upset because they did something wrong," said Gonzalez.

"If they didn’t have any proof, why did they put a picture of him in public and say he’s the suspect?"

Stow remains in intensive care at San Francisco General Hospital.

Stow suffered a fractured skull and traumatic brain injury in the attack.

While doctors have upgraded his condition from critical to serious, they say he likely suffered permanent brain damage.

But there is some good news, family members says he took a “step forward” Friday when he mouthed his last name and maybe even tried to give a thumbs-up to medical staff.

Stow’s family said in a blog post that the father of two was “very alert” Friday morning, when a nurse, nurse practitioner and neurosurgeon witnessed the gestures.

The news comes just a few days after Stow suffered a seizure and underwent emergency surgery for fluid buildup in his head.

As for the latest arrests, Stow's family says they are cautiously optimistic.

"We're really just waiting. Just kinda like everybody else, we know that they have a big job to do and they have a lot of work ahead of them and we're just putting all of our faith in the LAPD right now," cousin Johnny Stow said.

"There's a lot of work to be done, we understand what a long road it is for the LAPD what they have ahead of them. So we're really just waiting for the legal process to take shape."

Justice is served now," co-worker Chris Garvin said. "I hope it proves that these two individuals they do have in custody are the culprits of the crime."

"I hope that this comes to an end soon," another co-worker, Mike Elhihi said. "A lot of us are still praying for him... That's the most important thing, that he gets better."

You can donate directly to his to Stow's fundraising account by going to one of the banks listed at this site and make a deposit: www.CUSWIRL.com Act #118881

Or via your PayPal account www.PayPal.com Send funds to StowDonations@gmail.com

The fund is also accepting donations at www.sfpcu.org.

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