2 Plead Not Guilty in Boy’s Fatal Beating
Two Oxnard men pleaded not guilty Friday morning to charges that they beat to death a 17-year-old boy in September.
Francisco Soto, 20, and Eric Marcelino, 19, said little during the brief hearing in a Ventura County municipal courtroom.
They are accused of killing Luis Gerardo Rodriguez on Sept. 22. The coroner determined that Rodriguez died from several blows to the head. Marcelino faces the additional charge of allegedly using a club during the beating.
Judge Steven Hintz barred news photographers from taking pictures of the accused because neither the prosecution nor the defense wanted to influence potential witnesses.
There were at least six men around Gerardo when he was being beaten to death, said prosecutor Maeve Fox.
But witnesses told authorities that it was Soto and Marcelino who did the actual beating, with Soto hitting and kicking Gerardo and Marcelino using a Club-like anti-car-theft device, Fox said.
Police had arrested a juvenile soon after the killing but released him for lack of evidence. A preliminary hearing is set to begin Jan. 13.
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