Arsonist Hits Home of Witness in Little League Killing

Flaming newspapers were tossed through the smashed window of a Little League umpire’s home Tuesday, igniting a fire apparently connected to a baseball brawl that killed one teen-ager and put his attacker in the hospital, officials said.

A brick bearing a misspelled note reading “Talk and Your Dead” was found outside the home of Robert Lloyd, a key witness in the weekend violence that broke out after a game between 16- to 18-year-olds in the Big League Division of Little League.

“We consider it a very serious threat,” Alameda County Sheriff’s Lt. Ted Nelson said. “We will step up protection to some extent.”

Some curtains caught fire but the blaze was quickly extinguished, Nelson said.

Lloyd was threatened earlier after he identified a player who threw a rock that struck and seriously injured another player. That second player allegedly had fatally struck 17-year-old Joseph Matteucci in the head with an aluminum bat moments before.

Matteucci, who died Monday, was a spectator who apparently received a blow intended for somebody else, according to Nelson.

“It appears he was just standing in the wrong place when the bat was swung viciously at another person,” Nelson said. “That person got out of the way and the bat struck Joe, who didn’t know it was coming.”

Antonio Messina, 18, suspected of swinging the bat, was in “stable but guarded” condition at Highland Hospital in Oakland, according to nursing supervisor Sharon Kane.

Messina and others were angry about heckling from opposition fans. Messina took an aluminum bat and “challenged anybody and everybody to fight,” Nelson said. Messina swung at an opposing player, who ducked. Authorities said the bat hit Matteucci, who was standing nearby but looking the other way.

Messina dropped the bat and ran, but three players went after him, Nelson said. One threw a palm-size rock at Messina’s head, knocking him unconscious. Whether the 17-year-old rock thrower will be charged has not been determined.