Two men face a murder charge for allegedly assaulting an active-duty U.S. Marine outside a Bellflower bar and leaving him in the middle of the street where he was fatally run over by a car last year, authorities said this week.
Damari Kensey, 21, of Long Beach and Jaymel Williams, 28, of Inglewood have both pleaded not guilty and were each being held in jail on $2 million bail, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.
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They are accused in the death of Peter Chounthala on May 28, 2024, authorities said.
Chounthala, 42, had left a bar in the area of Artesia Boulevard and Virginia Avenue shortly before 2 a.m.
Kensey and Williams, who are cousins, allegedly followed him outside, beat him and left him lying in the middle of Artesia Boulevard, the DA’s Office said.
The bar sits less than a mile from the city’s border with Long Beach.
Chounthala was then hit by a vehicle, but the driver did not stop and has not been identified, DA’s officials said. He died at the scene.
“This brutal and senseless act took the life of a husband, father and Marine who served our country with honor, including tours in Afghanistan and multiple Marine expeditionary units,” DA Nathan Hochman said in a statement. “We will not tolerate this violence in our communities.”
Chounthala was the father of a 3-year-old boy, sheriff’s officials said at an August press conference asking the public for help in identifying his attackers.
“It’s painful knowing that I’m a widow, but knowing that our son is without a father now just makes it so much more painful to bear,” Jurina Chounthala, the victim’s wife, said at that press conference.
She said Peter Chounthala, who she was married to for 11 years, would be remembered for his sense of humor and his generosity.
“He’s like the glue that held us all together, whether it be a group of friends or our family,” Jurina Chounthala said.
His sister, Witpha Chounthala, said he was due to retire from the Marines at the end of 2024.
Why Kensey and Williams allegedly followed Chounthala out of the bar and beat him hasn’t been disclosed.
Williams was arrested on April 10 and Kensey was taken into custody on May 30, inmate records show. It is unclear how authorities determined these men were the suspects, and if the public helped them.
The men each face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
In a similar case, two men in August 2024 received sentences of 15 years to life after they were convicted of beating a man outside a bar in Santa Fe Springs and leaving him on Telegraph Road, where he was run over and killed by a passing car in September 2019.
The case is not the first in which Williams was accused of beating another person. In December 2020, he pleaded no contest to assault with a deadly weapon and was initially sentenced to three years probation and 92 days in jail, but was ultimately sentenced to two years in federal prison for violating parole, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
That charge was related to the beating of Evan Jimenez, who was 15-years old and a San Pedro High School student at the time and was walking a girl home in 900 block of West Second Street in county area near San Pedro when he was attacked by Williams.
The attack left Jimenez with serious head trauma and hospitalized near death. Williams was arrested in Montclair for committing a burglary a short time later and spent three months in jail before he was arrested in connection with the assault.
Williams also faces two counts of attempted murder and two counts of felon in possession of a firearm in a separate case stemming from a Feb. 4 shooting, the DA’s office confirmed.