2nd Bryan Stow Attacker To Plead Guilty To Federal Weapons Charge
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The second of two men who beat Bryan Stow in a Dodger Stadium parking lot – leaving the San Francisco Giants fan with permanent brain injuries – is expected to plead guilty next week to a federal weapons charge.
Louie Sanchez is scheduled to formally plead guilty on Jan. 29 in Los Angeles to a federal count of being a felon in possession of firearms/ammunition, according to a court docket. His co-defendant, Marvin Norwood, is scheduled to plead guilty to the same charge on Thursday.
The weapons charge, which carries a possible 10-year federal prison sentence, stems from a search at Norwood's Rialto's home before the men were arrested in July 2011. During the search, investigators said they located firearms and live ammunition belonging to Sanchez, hidden in an attic.
Sanchez, 32, and Norwood, 34, both pleaded guilty in February 2014 to state charges of carrying out the opening-day attack on Stow and were sentenced to eight- and four-year prison terms, respectively.
Norwood was taken into federal custody last Feb. 21, 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 grabbed him up.
Authorities said they 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 house. Federal authorities, however, said they determined that the weapons were in the possession of and available to both men.
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.
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.
Both Norwood and Sanchez are currently in federal custody.
Stow, now 45, 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 culpability in the attack.
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