Louie Sanchez and Marvin Norwood pleaded guilty Thursday to beating San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow on Opening Day at Dodger Stadium in 2011.
Sanchez, 31, received an eight-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to felony mayhem charges for punching Stow from behind, causing the 45-year-old former paramedic to fall on the pavement and suffer serious brain damage.
Norwood, 32, got four years in prison for felony assault for joining in on the beating after Stow was already down. Norwood has already served his time in jail for the Stow case, but he will remain in jail until a US Marshal takes custody of him for illegal gun possession.
All other charges were dropped. Sanchez and Norwood were originally charged with mayhem, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury.
Sanchez received harsh words from judge George Lomeli, who tried to put things in perspective. Sanchez could be seen smirking at one point as if he wasn’t taking things seriously enough:
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In a heartwarming yet poignant moment Friday afternoon before the Giants’ home opener, Bryan Stow made an appearance with his mother, Ann, via a video message before Stow’s 13-year-old son, Tyler, threw the first pitch. Stow, who appeared emotionless in his wheelchair as his mother read a statement, ended the video by extending his arm to “virtually” hand the ball to Tyler and saying, “Tyler, here’s your ball. Good luck, son.” The exchange received a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd.
It’s been over a year since Stow was brutally beaten at Dodger Stadium on opening day last season. He suffered a traumatic brain injury from the assault and will need assistance for the rest of his life. Friday reportedly was Stow’s first time appearing and speaking to the public. The Giants had hoped Stow, who now lives in a rehab facility, would be able to make an in-person appearance at AT&T Park for the pre-game festivities, but he was unable to do so. “We couldn’t be more excited for the person filling in for Bryan,” Ann Stow said about her grandson Tyler.
Video via CSN Bay Area
Say what you will about Barry Bonds and his allegedly steroid-ridden career, but the man is working hard to restore his image. It’s one thing to speak out against a horrible act like the Bryan Stow beating. Any athlete or celebrity with a microphone in their face could talk about how horrible it is for a group of fans to beat another fan for supporting a rival team, but Bonds has remained committed to helping the Stow family. After visiting Stow in the hospital and giving his children a scholarship to attend college, even the biggest Bonds haters would be stretching to say everything he has done is an act.
In what must be about step five of the Barry Bonds Image Restoration Project, Bonds recently appeared in a public service announcement with the Stow family. Whether he has been completely sincere or not, Barry has certainly done a great deal to raise money for a tragic cause. Check out the PSA, as shared by Sportress of Blogitude:
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It’s been over two and a half weeks since Giovanni Ramirez was taken into custody as the primary suspect in the Bryan Stow assault case, but he has yet to be charged for the crime. He’s been held in custody for allegedly violating his parole while police continue to investigate. Now, NBC LA reports about a piece of evidence that would likely make it easy to track down the suspect.
According to NBC LA, a white blood-stained Dodgers jersey was taken to a dry cleaner who alerted the police. The DNA on the jersey reportedly matched Bryan Stow’s. You would think that would lead to an arrest of the suspect, but a police source reportedly told NBC LA the jersey does not belong to Ramirez. Additionally, they report that “police have delayed asking the district attorney to file against Ramirez as part of a strategy to pressure him to reveal information about two other suspects still at large.”
Police have kept silent about evidence in the case and were reluctant to reveal much information regarding the jersey. Even if the jersey does not belong to Ramirez, it’s quite possible it belongs to the getaway driver, a woman who was wearing an Andre Ethier jersey according to all reports. One of the suspects in the case was wearing a Dodgers jersey and hat according to reports.
The lawyers for Giovanni Ramirez have said all along that he has a strong alibi, but LA Police Chief Charlie Beck said he was confident they had the right person. Maybe there has been little reported progress because they are trying to obtain information on the other two suspects. It’s hard to imagine they would go public with the news and have the wrong guy, but that is a possibility.
Here is a mug shot of Giovanni Ramirez, the man currently in custody.
Barry Bonds was known as a surly, rude, and irritable player during his career. It was so bad that even his own teammates supposedly wanted him to get hit by pitches. But Bonds seems to have changed since he’s retired. We’ve heard many media members and people say that he’s mellowed out and become a nicer guy, and that seemed to be confirmed when we heard he went to visit Bryan Stow’s family in the hospital shortly after the beating.
Now we’re learning another detail that makes Bonds look even better.
In an interview with NBC LA, the lawyer representing the Stow family in their suit against the Dodgers says the family plans to give back donations if they win the suit. Attorney Thomas Girardi also revealed that the family plans on keeping one gift: a college scholarship donated by Barry Bonds for Stow’s children. Girardi told LBS he wasn’t sure how much the donation involved, but that he knows Bonds set up the scholarships for the children.
Stow is a single father of two children and Bonds already reportedly gave them a signed glove and bat in the hospital. Now he’s paying for them to attend college? He sure has changed, and he is making some great use of his time while he awaits a hearing in his perjury trial. Well done Barry, very well done.
Thanks to Josina Anderson for the tip
On Sunday, Giovanni Ramirez was arrested and booked on suspicion of assaulting Bryan Stow at Dodger Stadium on Opening Day. He was booked for assault with a deadly weapon and is being held on $1 million bail. His mug shot was not released at the time of his booking, but we present it to you courtesy of our friend A Mack and KFI which has since taken down the photo.
I have to say that his actual mug shot looks incredibly similar to the police artist sketch. And just like the LA Times reported, he has an incredible amount of tattoos on his neck which were added to try and cover up previous tattoos that may have been able to use to identify him. Luckily it didn’t work.
The LAPD has released the name of the suspect booked in connection with the assault on Giants fan Bryan Stow at Dodger Stadium on Opening Day, and it is 31-year-old Giovanni Ramirez. Ramirez was booked for assault with a deadly weapon and is being held on $1 million bail.
According to the LA Times, Ramirez was convicted of attempted robbery in 1998, robbery in 1999, and firing a weapon in a public place in 2005.
Amazingly enough, the most helpful tip in the investigation came from a parole officer. Ramirez apparently had a meeting with his officer shortly after the attack and the officer noticed he resembled one of the men from the sketch.
Ramirez was arrested Sunday when detectives and the SWAT team raided an apartment building in East Hollywood. Of the two men in the sketch, he is the one on the left and believed to be the primary aggressor in the attack. When he was booked, he was described as being 5’11” 200 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.
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We’ve done so much Barry Bonds bashing over the years here at LBS, it’s only fair to point out when the seemingly heartless man actually does something positive. NBC Bay Area reported Wednesday afternoon that Bonds actually visited Bryan Stow in the hospital. Stow you’ll recall is the Giants fan who was attacked by savage Dodger fans on Opening Day and ended up in a medically-induced coma because of his injuries.
The spokeswoman for Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, Rosa Saca, said Bonds came to the hospital last Friday and met with the family. NBC Bay Area reported that “Bonds also spent an hour in Stow’s room and left a signed baseball bat for Stow’s children.”
We had heard that Bonds has mellowed since retiring and actually become a much nicer person. This report would confirm that, and it certainly is a commendable gesture by Bonds. And while we’re on the subject of Barry’s compassion, he actually wasn’t that rude on his voicemails to Kimberly Bell as the courts would have you believe. Maybe he’s not so bad these days after all.
I can remember the seemingly halcyon days of my childhood spent at Dodger Stadium. None of us really minded during those years that Kal Daniels was patrolling the outfield, Rafael Bournigal was booting ground balls around the infield, or that Tommy Lasorda would periodically take naps… during the games. As long as Vin Scully’s dulcet tones could be heard over a portable radio, narrating how the sun was setting, illuminating the San Gabriel Mountain-backdrop, then everything seemed right with the world on a summer’s evening. A week’s worth of PE classes dashed to pieces in one night’s worth of a Dodger Dog and Cool-a-Coo binge. The only tomfoolery to speak of was a bevy of beach balls that, more times than not, seemed to find themselves ricocheting off the head of an unsuspecting blue-haired spectator. And there was the memorable inflated Shamu replica that was spotted at the stadium once; the thing filled up an entire row of seats. Chavez Ravine was the place to be.
Then, at some point over the last decade or so, civility became less frequent than victories. Walter O’Malley’s prized Los Angeles jewel began to lose its shine quicker than requisitioned cubic zirconium. If you believe the recent stories about assault, drug use (apparently not performance-enhancing), and drunken hooliganism at the ballpark, Dodger Stadium has apparently been transformed into yard time at cell block D, only with less courteousness. The latest such incident involves San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow, whose apparent transgression was to wear the colors of the opposing team during the Dodgers’ season opener. Stow, a paramedic and father of two, was beaten into a coma and has suffered permanent brain damage as a result of the incident. Some misguided opinions have surfaced implying that he should have known better than to cheer for the opposition in a place where a stabbing occurred almost exactly two years earlier for similar reasons. The most ridiculous part of that assertion is that some actually believe this. Apparently, some fans have taken the meaning of sports fanatic a little too far. When did it get to the point where it is forbidden to cheer for the other team lest there be some sort of reprisal? Hammurabi probably would have speculated that some Dodger fans have gone overboard.
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Giants fan Bryan Stow remains in a coma and in critical condition after being attacked by two savage Dodgers fans on Opening Day at Dodger Stadium. The issue has blown up and sparked a heated reaction with the public, and a great deal of pressure has been put on the Dodgers to do something about the incident.
The team finally responded Wednesday announcing the hiring of former LA police chief William J. Bratton “to develop what the team called a “security blueprint” for Dodger Stadium and the surrounding parking lots.” Pessimists might say the move is too little too late and argue that McCourt’s cheapness led to the problem (the team opened the year without a security chief for the first time), but to me that is unfair.
For one of the first times since Frank McCourt took over ownership of the organization, the negative publicity the team is receiving for a highly visible incident cannot be blamed on him.
People have a need for answers to hopeless questions like why did this happen. They look for reasons. The search for reasons leads to scapegoats. In this case, the scapegoat is an extremely easy target in Frank McCourt, but I won’t blame him nor the Dodgers for the issue.
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