Federal prosecutors are recommending that a judge sentence each of the two felons who beat Bryan Stow in a Dodger Stadium parking lot — leaving the San Francisco Giants fan with permanent brain injuries — to multiple-year prison terms for weapons possession, court papers obtained Tuesday show.
Louie Sanchez, 32, and Marvin Norwood, 34, previously pleaded guilty to one federal count each of being a felon in possession of firearms/ammunition. The charge carries a possible 10-year prison term.
Prosecutors are seeking a nearly eight-year term for Sanchez, citing an “extensive” criminal history that began when he was 16 years old. A five- year, four-month sentence is recommended for Norwood.
Although the federal weapons count does not directly involve the Stow beating, prosecutors refer to Sanchez as having been observed punching Stow “in the left side of the head without warning,” and then watching as the victim went “limp and hit the pavement, banging his head on the ground,” before kicking him “three separate times with full force,” according to the government’s sentencing position papers.
U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin set May 7 for sentencing.
Sanchez was previously sentenced to eight years in state prison after pleading guilty in Los Angeles County Superior Court to a felony count of mayhem for the unprovoked 2011 attack on Stow.
His co-defendant was sentenced to four years in state prison after pleading guilty to assault causing great bodily injury for the Stow assault.
A federal grand jury indicted Sanchez and Norwood in March 2014, shortly after their guilty pleas in state court, on the firearms charge.
During a search at Norwood’s Rialto home before the pair were arrested in July 2011, investigators located firearms and live ammunition belonging to Sanchez hidden in an attic.
Norwood was taken into federal custody a day after he was sentenced in state court. He had spent eight months in county jail beyond the two years of the four-year sentence he was required to serve as part of a plea deal in the Stow assault and was about to be released before federal authorities pounced.
Authorities found about a half-dozen weapons — two semiautomatic rifles and a pistol, a 12-gauge shotgun and a revolver — along with nearly 70 rounds of ammunition when they searched Norwood’s home in connection with the Stow assault.
Norwood told police that the guns were not his and that he had allowed Sanchez to store them at his residence. Federal authorities, however, said they determined that the weapons were in the possession of, and available to, both men.
In a recorded conversation after the men were arrested, Norwood told Sanchez, “You know they got the guns, right?” and “They got the guns. There ain’t no getting around that,” according to the federal sentencing papers.
Court records showed both Norwood and Sanchez had prior convictions in San Bernardino before the unprovoked Stow assault at Dodger Stadium on March 31, 2011. Stow, who is from the Bay area, had been wearing Giants gear.
Sanchez was convicted of evading an officer in 2006 and a misdemeanor count of domestic violence in 2003. Norwood was found guilty of felony spousal assault in 2006, the indictment shows.
The weapons and ammunition were recovered from the garage attic crawl space at Norwood’s home.
Both Norwood and Sanchez are currently in federal custody.
Stow, now 46, remains severely impaired with permanent brain damage. The father of two and former paramedic spent the first two years after the attack in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities and still requires daily care by his family.
Last July, a civil jury awarded roughly $18 million in damages to Stow. But after a lengthy deliberation, the panel found that only Los Angeles Dodgers LLC, the business entity created by ex-Dodgers owner Frank McCourt when he owned the team, and Stow’s two assailants were liable.
Los Angeles Dodgers LLC will have to pay about $14.1 million of the final judgment. But the panel exonerated McCourt of any liability in the attack.
— City News Service