Athletes Face New Charges After Man, 19, Dies

Two high school football players were being held on suspicion of murder Tuesday after a man they allegedly beat up at a party near Palmdale died from extensive head injuries.

Littlerock High School students Marcus Raines and Richard Newton, both 17, attacked the man during a Friday night party, punching him and kicking him several times in the head, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Christopher O’Leary, 19, went home after the fight and fell asleep but was airlifted to a hospital hours later in critical condition.

On Saturday, Raines, a top linebacker and high hurdler, went to a track meet and won two medals.

On Monday, O’Leary died at Northridge Hospital Medical Center from fight-related head injuries, authorities said.

Earlier that day, deputies, acting on a tip from the hospital, arrested Newton and Raines on assault charges.

Both had good grades and no history of disciplinary problems, said Michael Dutton, principal of Littlerock High.

“They were athletic stars with very bright futures,” Dutton said.

Friends said O’Leary had a bright future too.

“He seemed very sweet and funny, and he had this creative edge about him,” said Christina Wilson, 18, who has known O’Leary since he was a freshman in high school. “I couldn’t believe he was killed like that.”

Some witnesses say the fight started when O’Leary, who is white, used a racial epithet to refer to Raines and Newton, who are black.

If true, this would be the second time in six months that an Antelope Valley student has died in a fight allegedly sparked by racial hostilities. In November, Stephan Corson, a 13-year-old black boy, was killed in a schoolyard scrap with a white student. Corson’s family has claimed that the fight was provoked by a racial slur.

“It’s alarming that we’ve had two deaths in fights like these,” said Darren Parker, president of the Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force. “I don’t think the community will be the same.”

Investigators are still working on the case and have not yet presented it to the district attorney’s office for possible charges, Sheriff’s Lt. Don Bear said.

If the teenagers are charged with murder, however, a new state law may require them to be tried as adults. Both remain in custody.

The incident started at a party Friday night in Littlerock, an unincorporated rural area southeast of Palmdale. It’s not clear what sparked the violence, with some students blaming it on a racial slur, others saying it was over a girl and authorities saying the attack appears to have been unprovoked.

According to Bear, O’Leary was talking with his girlfriend, a Littlerock High cheerleader, in front of a house on Boxthorn Street where several dozen students had gathered for a party.

Around midnight, he tried to persuade his girlfriend to leave but apparently the two football players encouraged her to stay, said Dennis Henson, 18, who was at the party. O’Leary didn’t know Raines or Newton, police said.

While he was arguing with his girlfriend, who has not been identified, O’Leary referred to the football players in a racist way, Henson said. That provoked Raines and Newton to pick a fight, Henson and other students said.

In a matter of moments, Newton felled O’Leary with a blow to the face, students said. Then Raines kicked him several times in the head, they added.

There was little visible damage and, after the fight, a group of O’Leary’s friends helped him up and drove him, dazed, to his home in Littlerock, where he lived with his parents, police said. He went to sleep, but a few hours later, when his girlfriend came to the house to check on him, he wasn’t moving.

O’Leary was airlifted to the hospital about 4 a.m. Saturday. He arrived in critical condition. Nurses learned about what happened and notified sheriff’s investigators.

In the meantime, Raines traveled with the Littlerock track team Saturday morning to Cerritos College for the CIF Southern Section Division I track finals, where he won the 110-meter high hurdles and 300-meter intermediate hurdles.

Both Raines and Newton are well-muscled athletes. Raines is a 6-foot-2, 195-pound All-Golden League linebacker, and in track is ranked No. 2 in the state for high hurdles. As a junior, he’s a major college football prospect. Newton, also a junior, is Littlerock High’s starting quarterback.

O’Leary attended Littlerock High until last year, when he transferred to a continuation school and subsequently dropped out, school officials said.

Risling is a Times Community News reporter and Gettleman is a Times staff writer.