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Two charged with Dodger Stadium beating

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LOS ANGELES, Calif.–Two men were charged today with mayhem, assault and battery in connection with the opening-day beating of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow outside Dodger Stadium, and the man who had been arrested in connection with the beating was officially exonerated.

Louis Sanchez, 29, and Marvin Norwood, 30, both of Rialto, are scheduled to be arraigned Monday in downtown Los Angeles. They were both arrested Thursday and were being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

A woman who was also arrested–identified by the Los Angeles Times as 31-year-old Dorene Sanchez, who is believed to be Louie’s sister and the wife or girlfriend of Norwood–was not charged.

According to the District Attorney’s Office, both men were charged with mayhem, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury, all felonies. Sanchez was also charged with two misdemeanor counts of battery stemming from a separate incident the same day.

Sanchez faces a maximum of nine years in prison, while Norwood faces up to eight years behind bars, according to prosecutors.

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck said Giovanni Ramirez, 31, who was arrested May 22 in connection with the March 31 beating, had no connection to the attack.

“I want to tell the world, Giovanni Ramirez is no longer a suspect in this case,” Beck said.

Police arrested Ramirez after a parole agent raised suspicion that he might be one of the assailants, but investigators apparently could not find evidence conclusively linking him to the savage beating.

“That was very (upsetting) for me and stressful especially in the kind of job that I have that people, customers and coworkers would point to me, ‘Oh that’s the mother of Giovanni Ramirez, oh yes,’ you know?” Ramirez’s mother, Soledad Gonzalez told reporters at an afternoon news conference.

“So I got very depressed but I thought I believe in God and I said well I know my son is innocent.”

Ramirez, a documented gang member, was never charged with attacking Stow, but in late June he was sent to prison for 10 months for violating his parole because a gun was found in the apartment where he was staying. He’s being held in San Diego.

“I got very upset because they (police) did something wrong,” Gonzalez said. “If you don’t have any proof, why did you put the picture of him in public and say, ‘He is the suspect. He is the first primary suspect?’ No. That’s wrong. There is a big, big mistake they made.”

The LAPD announced June 8 that the investigation into the Stow beating was being shifted from detectives at the Northeast Station to the elite Robbery-Homicide Division, which typically handles high-profile cases.

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors added $15,000 to the reward for information leading to the people who took part in the Stow beating. That brought the total reward on offer to at least $225,000.

Stow, a 42-year-old Santa Cruz paramedic and a father of two, suffered brain injuries when he was punched and kicked by two men who police say the left the scene in a vehicle driven by a woman.

He remains hospitalized at San Francisco General Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery Monday after suffering a seizure resulting from a build-up of fluid in his head. According to his family, he showed positive signs of improvement today, opening his eyes on command and mouthing his last name.

Police said Stow was attacked solely because he was wearing Giants paraphernalia while his attackers and the female getaway driver were wearing Dodgers gear.

The suspects arrested on Thursday live in the same Rialto neighborhood, The Times reported.

Dorene Sanchez was taken into custody at the same Rialto home that Louie Sanchez told authorities was his residence. She was released after posting bail.

Norwood and Dorene Sanchez live in a home on a quiet Rialto cul-de-sac.

Louie Sanchez lives six houses down with his parents, neighbors told The Times.

Police on Thursday searched the homes and towed a truck that neighbors said belonged to Norwood, the paper reported.

A neighbor told The Times Norwood and Dorene Sanchez live with three children, including a toddler and two older children between 9 and 11 years old. Louie Sanchez’s son is about 9 or 10 and visits his father on weekends, according to a neighbor.

Norwood, according to the arrest records, stands 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 250 pounds, roughly matching the description witnesses gave police of one of the attackers. Louie Sanchez was listed as 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighing 175 pounds, which also closely matches a description given by witnesses.

Fontana police described Louie Sanchez as having neck tattoos when he was arrested for drunken driving in 2005, according to court records cited by The Times. The LAPD has described one of the assailants in the Stow attack as having possible tattoos on his neck.

Witnesses to the Dodger Stadium beating reported seeing a child about 10 years old in the car in which the two assailants fled after the attack. A law enforcement source told The Times that a child provided authorities with information about the crime.

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