3rd Athlete Arrested in Beating Death

A third high school football player was arrested Wednesday in the beating death of 18-year-old Christopher O’Leary, as prosecutors filed murder charges against the two players already being held in the case.

O’Leary, an avid skateboarder and frog collector, died Monday after being jumped by a group of Littlerock High School football players at a party Friday night, authorities say. Some witnesses said O’Leary, who was white, used a racial slur against the players, who are African American.

But O’Leary’s uncle insisted Wednesday that the fight was completely unprovoked.

“Chris was just talking to his girlfriend,” according to Dan O’Leary, who said he spoke with several of the kids at the party. “He wasn’t arguing with anyone. He’s not a bigot. He wouldn’t say anything racist to anybody.”

Late Wednesday afternoon, deputies arrested a 17-year-old who they said helped beat O’Leary to death, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Det. Ray Lugo.

The Sheriff’s Department did not release the suspect’s name, but sources with direct knowledge said he was also a member of the Littlerock High School football team.

Prosecutors filed murder and assault charges Wednesday against Marcus Raines and Richard Newton, both 17. Sheriff’s investigators said they are seeking the same charges against the third boy arrested.

The three, all from Palmdale, are being held in Sylmar Juvenile Hall. Arraignment for Raines and Newton is set for today, said a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. Prosecutors are petitioning to try the two as adults, in which case they could face life in prison.

All three suspects are considered promising athletes. Raines, the No. 2 high hurdler in California and an all-star linebacker, had been billed as a shoo-in for a major college football scholarship.

Newton was Littlerock High’s starting quarterback as a junior.

None of the teens had a disciplinary record, school officials said.

“From all the people we talked to, Chris was a great kid and so were the other boys,” Lugo said. “That’s what’s so sad here. All these kids come from great families. It just took one minute of bad judgment and look what happened.”

Also on Wednesday, authorities released preliminary results from the autopsy. O’Leary died from blunt force trauma, said Scott Carrier, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. He suffered brain swelling, Carrier said, which helps explain how he went home after the fight and fell asleep before his girlfriend noticed he wasn’t moving and called 911.

He was flown to Northridge Hospital Medical Center in critical condition at 4 a.m. Saturday and succumbed to fight-related injuries Monday night.

O’Leary’s uncle said his nephew had no history of fighting, didn’t like to drink and spent most of his free time with his girlfriend or collecting frogs.

“You should have seen his room,” Dan O’Leary said. “There’s more frogs, turtles and salamanders in there than you could count.”

Christopher O’Leary had lived in Downey and moved to the Antelope Valley when he was 7. He took to hunting and fishing, his uncle said, and spent weekends on lakes and rivers with his dad. He also was into skateboarding and favored Vans skate shoes and big, baggy shorts.

Recently, he had finished classes at a continuation school and was planning a trip to Belize with a friend. The two were going to work at a beach resort and study animals in the rain forest, his uncle said.

“Reptiles and amphibians were Chris’ life,” he said.

Around midnight Friday, O’Leary was talking with his girlfriend, captain of the Littlerock High cheerleading squad, in front of the high school party in Littlerock. Some kids at the party said trouble began when Newton and Raines got involved in O’Leary’s conversation and that O’Leary then referred to them in a racist way, sparking the fight.

Investigators, however, hadn’t heard any accounts of racial slurs and concluded the beating was unprovoked. Investigators Wednesday confirmed his age as 18, after initially saying he was 19.

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Gettleman is a Times staff writer and Risling is a Times Community News reporter. Times staff writer John Ortega also contributed to this report.