Prosecutors unveil more evidence in Giants’ fan beating

Sanchez and Marvin Norwood

LOS ANGELES – Details emerged this week in the March beating of a baseball fan during Opening Day at Dodger Stadium.

Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee said the attack that has left Giants fan Bryan Stow hospitalized for more than four months was part of a spree of assaults carried out by two men that began during the game and ended in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium with the brutal beating of Stow.

Hanisee asked that Louie Sanchez, 29, the apparent leader of the attacks, remain jailed on $500,000 bail ahead of a bail hearing next week in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Sanchez and Marvin Norwood, 30, who are neighbors in Rialto, a community about an hour’s drive from Dodger Stadium, have been charged with mayhem, and assault and battery in the attack on Stow.

Sanchez allegedly blindsided Stow, knocking him unconscious with a punch that caused him to fall and hit his head on the parking lot pavement as fans left the game.

Doctors believe that Stow, a 42-year-old paramedic from the coastal city of Santa Cruz, suffered a fractured skull. He remains hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury, according to an Associated Press story.

Hanisee told the court that Sanchez started trouble inside the ball park. He allegedly threw a soda on a fan named Kathryn Gillespie, then tried to attack Gillespie’s male companion after he yelled at Sanchez. Reports say Norwood held Sanchez back.

Sanchez, who is expected to argue for a bail reduction at an Aug. 10 hearing, is “completely incapable of controlling his behavior,” said Hanisee, adding that Stow’s injury was not “an isolated act of violence by Sanchez but was the culmination of a chain of violent acts against strangers.”

After the game, the prosecutor said, Sanchez ran over to a group of Giants fans and “swung his fist at one of them.” As Stow and two friends walked past him, Sanchez allegedly shoved Stow and punched his friend, Matthew Lee.

Lee, who is a key witness to the crime, died Sunday from an apparent allergic reaction to a bag of nuts, according to a Los Angeles Times story.

Sanchez and Norwood reportedly followed Stow, Lee and another man, Allen Bradford, as they walked toward a taxi stand. It was there that Sanchez allegedly punched Bradford, knocking him to the ground. Stow, who was facing Norwood, was then punched in the side of the head by Sanchez.

Stow’s friends said he immediately lost consciousness as his head hit pavement, according to Hanisee. Witnesses, she said, watched Stow’s friends attempt to shield his body from Sanchez’s continued attacks.

Norwood, said Hanisee, stood over Stow’s body and said, “Who else wants to fight?”

Witnesses said that Sanchez kicked the unconscious Stow several times in the head, and that Norwood also kicked Stow, according to Hanisee.

Hanisee referred to Sanchez’s criminal history, which includes suspicion of firing a gun, possessing marijuana, convictions of gun possession, drunken driving and domestic violence.

Dorene Sanchez, who is Sanchez’s sister and apparently a live-in companion of Norwood’s, was also arrested on suspicion of driving the suspects away from the scene of the crime.