The 17-year-old Boy accused of causing the death of a soccer referee has pleaded guilty to homicide by assault.
As a result of a plea deal with the prosecution the 17-year-old boy will stay in a juvenile detention center until he is 21. He will not be tried as an adult as prosecutors had originally requested. During the hearing the boy admitted to punching soccer referee Ricardo Portillo after being called for a foul in a youth soccer match in April. Portillo died after spending a week in a coma at Intermountain Medical Center. Two of Portillo’s three daughters spoke at the hearing. They both expressed pain at the loss of their father and said they hoped the boy would learn a lesson from this.
“You messed up and you took our dad away and we can’t see him anymore,” one daughter said.
The juvenile judge also ordered the boy to write weekly letter’s to Portillo’s daughters and that a picture of the referee be placed in his cell.