A preliminary hearing to determine whether two men will stand trial for the attack on a San Francisco Giants fan in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium on opening day last year entered a second day Thursday with testimony from a woman who said she saw two men running toward a parked car.
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Louie Sanchez, 30, and Marvin Norwood, 31, both of Rialto, are charged in the March 31, 2011, beating of Bryan Stow, a father of two who was wearing a Giants jersey when he was confronted after the opening day game.
Stow suffered head trauma when he was attacked while walking with friends in the baseball stadium's parking lot after the Dodgers' win over the Giants.
A witness who attended the game described two Dodgers fans who pushed and punched a teenager and shouted obscenties at other fans. When asked how the Giants fans reacted to their taunts, she testified, "'We don't want no trouble.'"
She told the court she later saw the men running toward a car and yelling, "Drive, drive, drive."
The witness was never asked to identify the two men.
On the first day of the preliminary hearing Wednesday, a police interview with one of the accused was played in court. Norwood called his mother after his arrest and told her he was involved "in that Dodger Stadium thing,'' according to testimony.
The prosecution's first witness, Los Angeles police Detective Howard Jackson, testified that he interviewed Norwood for about three hours in July 2011 and allowed him to make a phone call. The prosecution played a videotape of the call in which Norwood could be heard telling his mother, "I got arrested for that Dodger Stadium thing.''
Norwood told his mother that he could not talk much about the matter over the phone.
"I was involved ... To a certain extent, I was,'' he said.
On cross-examination, the Jackson said Norwood told investigators several times that he did not think he was involved in the same altercation as the one that critically injured Stow. Norwood also claimed Sanchez was attacked after pursuing Giants fans into the parking lot, the detective said.
Norwood and Sanchez were arrested last July. The hearing before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli is expected to last as long as four days.
Sanchez and Norwood are charged with one felony count each of mayhem, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury, along with the allegation that the two inflicted great bodily injury on Stow.
Prosecutors contended in court papers filed last summer that the men initially shoved Stow, followed him after he and his friends walked away, punched him in the side of the head and then kicked him in the head after knocking him unconscious. A Bay Area paramedic now unable to work, Stow is still being treated for his injuries.
Sanchez also is charged with a misdemeanor count of battery involving a run-in with a female Giants fan and a misdemeanor battery count for allegedly swinging his fist at a young man in a group of Giants fans in the parking lot after the game. Along with the charges in state court, Sanchez and Norwood are charged in federal court with being a felon in possession of a firearm.
