Overview
- Los Angeles County prosecutors added eight counts of sodomy of a person under 16 and one count of oral copulation under 16, alleging abuse between September 2022 and July 2023 involving one surviving victim.
- Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino pleaded not guilty to the new charges and remains jailed without bail, and he also faces separate consolidated counts tied to alleged assaults in 2022 and 2024.
- He is charged with the March 2025 murder of 13-year-old Oscar "Omar" Hernandez, whose death was ruled a homicide caused by acute ethanol intoxication after his body was found near Oxnard.
- The murder count includes a special-circumstance allegation of a lewd act with a child, leaving prosecutors to decide later whether to seek the death penalty or pursue life without parole.
- Prosecutors say additional evidence prompted the new filing, and a four-day preliminary hearing in late March is expected to include testimony from surviving alleged victims and to determine if the case advances.