Soccer coach allegedly had history of abuse. 7 On Your Side Investigates

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Today as a family continues to mourn the loss of their 13-year-old son, we are learning the man accused of murdering that boy is now also being charged with the sexual assaults of two other teenage boys. One of those cases started back in 2022.

So now the big question is how was Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino coaching youth soccer? And if he was charged sooner, would 13-year-old Oscar Hernandez still be alive?

The Los Angeles County D.A.'s Office tells 7 on Your Side Investigates they are now charging Garcia-Aquino for the assault of a 14-year-old boy that took place back in December of 2022.

The D.A. is also now charging Garcia-Aquino for allegedly assaulting a 16-year-old boy. That alleged assault took place in May of last year.

The D.A.'s office told us in both of those previous cases, it interviewed the victims and had results from forensics testing. In fact, prosecutors say the process of filing the charges in that 2024 case started about two weeks ago, just days before 13-year-old Oscar Hernandez was reported missing.

Why were charges in those two cases not presented earlier? We asked the District Attorney Nathan Hochman that question today.

"During the 2022 case, it was presented to the D.A.'s office in August of 2023. When we got the case, we asked for additional interviews, we asked for additional forensic evidence to be analyzed and completed. Unfortunately, the additional interviews were not finalized until very recently. Once we had a final interview or pre-filing interview with the victim, we were in a position to go forward with that case, which we made a decision on Monday, and the case got filed today," Hochman said.

When pressed on the timing of the charges, Hochman said, "Very often in order to get to a completion of a case, the individuals involved in a case have to be at a point at which they are willing to fully come forward and provide all the information we need to make a prosecutorial decision. That didn't happen fully until yesterday."

And Hochman says the full timelines of what prosecutors learned in each of these cases will all eventually come out in a court of law.