Friend Gives Disturbing Account Of Bryan Stow's Beating At Dodger Stadium

LOS ANGELES (CBS)— A paramedic who was off-duty at the time Giants fan Bryan Stow was severely attacked at Dodger Stadium gave graphic details of the incident in court Wednesday.

Stow was knocked unconscious when witnesses say several men wearing Dodger jerseys assaulted him in a stadium parking lot on opening day last year.

Corey Maciel attended the game with fellow paramedic Bryan Stow and two others to root for the Giants on March 31, 2011. He testified Wednesday that he quickly realized the severity of Stow's injuries after he saw the back of a friend's head bounce off the pavement.

Stow's friend said he saw the assailant -- whom he described as a Hispanic man between 20 and 30 years old -- repeatedly kick Stow in the head with "full wind-up" kicks after knocking him to the ground with a "haymaker punch" to the left side of his head.

"To my recollection, it was three times," Maciel testified of the number of kicks by Stow's primary attacker during a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to require Louie Sanchez, 30, and Marvin Norwood, 31, to stand trial for Stow's beating.

Maciel testified that another man -- whom he described as a taller white man -- "kicked Bryan in the torso, in the ribs." Stow's friend testified that the taller man ran toward him in an apparent effort to slow him down as he rushed to Stow's aid and that "there were punches thrown," but "none of them struck me." He said he was able to get around the man.

"I threw my body over Bryan's head to try to stop any further (contact)," Maciel said, adding that he remembered hearing profanities about the Giants.

"I said, `Stop, what else do you want? He's unconscious," Stow's friend testified, noting that another off-duty paramedic who was with the group also tried to shield Stow's body.

Stow was "deeply unconscious," did not respond to painful stimuli and had blood coming from his left ear, Maciel said.

A friend who had been with them at the game, Alan "Jeff" Bradford, was briefly knocked to the ground with a punch before the assailant rushed toward Stow and attacked him, the witness testified.

He said the same man had shoved Stow about five minutes earlier after he and another man confronted Stow about a remark he had made after being heckled by Dodgers fans, in which Stow said with a raised voice that he hoped they "code" -- a term for cardiac arrest.

Another man with them, Matthew Lee, told his friends he had been punched in the face by the man who pushed Stow, according to Maciel.

"He said he was upset, but it wasn't worth it and he just wanted to get out of there," Maciel said of Lee's reaction.

During a 911 call placed by an onlooker, Maciel told a 911 dispatcher that "we need an ambulance right now" and that Stow was "not doing good" following the attack by a man in a Dodgers jersey.

Another prosecution witness, Monique Alexandria Gonzalez, testified that she heard a Giants fan, whom she subsequently learned was Stow, telling two men in Dodgers jerseys to leave his group alone and that the Dodgers fans appeared to be "like in a sparring motion ready to fight" before Stow was struck in the face.

"He didn't break his fall. He just totally landed on his head," she said, noting that the assailant then kicked Stow, who "didn't respond at all."

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli is expected to rule either Thursday or Friday on whether Sanchez and Norwood, both of Rialto, will proceed to trial.

The two men are charged with one felony count each of mayhem, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury, along with the allegation that the two inflicted great bodily injury on Stow.

Sanchez also is charged with a misdemeanor count of battery involving a run-in with a female Giants fan and a misdemeanor battery count for allegedly swinging his fist at a young man in another group of Giants fans in the parking lot after the game.

Stow suffered a skull fracture that resulted in the loss of a portion of his skull as well as damage to his brain, according to a stipulation signed by attorneys from both sides and read Wednesday in court.

Stow currently is "unable to walk, has loss of motor skills in his arms and hands, is unable to carry on a normal conversation, unable to control his bodily functions and unable to care for himself due to diffuse, severe, traumatic brain injury," according to the document. "Bryan Stow will require skilled long-term care and daily assistance for the remainder of his life."

Prosecutors contended in court papers filed last summer that Sanchez initially shoved Stow, followed the Bay Area paramedic after he and his friends walked away and that Sanchez punched him in the side of the head and that both he and Norwood kicked Stow after he was knocked unconscious.

Along with the charges in state court, Sanchez and Norwood are charged in federal court with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Weapons recovered from the garage attic crawl space at Norwood's home included a Bushmaster assault rifle, with scope and magazine attached; a Marlin semi-automatic rifle; a Mossberg semi-automatic shotgun loaded with five rounds of 12-gauge ammunition and other handguns, according to an affidavit filed by a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Norwood said in an interview with police that the weapons belonged to Sanchez but that he kept them at his home because "Sanchez does not have a place to store the guns," according to the affidavit, which was filed in support of the federal criminal complaint.

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