LOS ANGELES – A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has ordered Louie Sanchez and Marvin Norwood to stand trial on charges that they brutally assaulted San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow at Dodger Stadium in 2011.
The decision caps a six-day preliminary hearing that included dramatic testimony from witnesses who recalled the chilling moment when Stow’s skull hit the pavement as well as a recording of Norwood admitting to his mother that he was “involved” in the opening day beating.
Stow, a 43-year-old father of two, suffered serious head trauma and remains in a therapeutic facility. The incident drew national attention and calls for police, city officials and the Dodgers to tighten stadium security and better protect fans.
On the first day of the preliminary hearing, prosecutors showed a video of Norwood sitting in an interrogation room, speaking to his mother on an LAPD detective’s cellphone.
“Hey, I got arrested for that Dodger Stadium thing,” the 31-year-old says. “I was involved … To a certain extent I was.”
He tells his mother he can’t say much over the phone but says Louie Sanchez, 30, is also in custody.
Norwood then apologizes: “Pretty sure I’m going down for it. … I’m sorry.”
Other witnesses testified that the beating was unprovoked.
Joann Cerda, who witnessed the assault from a distance, said the Giants fans kept trying to walk away, but the two male Dodger fans “kept throwing hands in the air and making gestures like they wanted to fight.”
She said that Stow was standing still with his arms at his side when one of the men blindsided him with a punch to the side of the head. She said he seemed to lose consciousness before he even hit the ground.
The final witness, Dorene Sanchez, brother of Louie Sanchez and Norwood’s fiancee, offered a perspective no other witness could – from inside the alleged getaway car.
She recalled her brother with panic in his voice, screaming for her to “get … out of here!” and said she saw blood on the hand of Norwood.
“I said, ‘Babe, what the hell?’ And he said, ‘Don’t worry about it, babe,'” she recalled.
But in two hours of testimony, Sanchez appeared eager to aid the defense. She grinned at her brother and repeatedly flashed smiles at Norwood, with whom she has a child. She told the judge that she did not see the fight that left Stow with brain damage, and that the men never admitted involvement.
