Mother of ‘Sandlot’ actor killed in Northern California, suspect in custody

The mother of Marty York — an actor best known for his role in the beloved 1990s baseball movie “The Sandlot” — was found dead in her Northern California home Thursday morning and a suspect has been arrested in Oregon, authorities said.

Officials found the body of Deanna Esmaeel, a Del Norte County sheriff’s deputy, inside her home on North Bank Road in Crescent City on Thursday morning, according to a Facebook post from the sheriff’s department.

Her boyfriend, 54-year-old Daniel James Walter, was announced as a suspect in the attack a short time later and arrested just over the California-Oregon border in Brookings on Friday night, authorities said.

“This is the hardest post I’ll ever have to write but I found out from the sheriff department last night that my mother was murdered by a man she was seeing,” York wrote on Instagram on Friday, next to a Christmas picture of him smiling alongside his mother. “The emotions I have are horrible right now between rage, vengeance, crying.”

The cast of the comedy “The Sandlot.” Left to right, Patrick Renna is “Ham,” Grant Gelt is Bertram, Mike Vitar is Benny, Chauncey Leopardi (in glasses) is “Squints,” Victor Dimattia is Timmy, Marty York is “Yeah–Yeah,” Shane Obedzinski (foreground) is “Repeat,” Brandon Adams is DeNunez and Tom Guiry is Scotty.

(20th Century Fox)

York was best known for playing Alan “Yeah-Yeah” McClennan, one of the members of the ragtag baseball team at the center of “The Sandlot.” York also made appearances in the sitcom “Boy Meets World,” and actors Rider Strong and Danielle Fishel from that series offered their condolences online Friday.

In an interview, Del Norte County Sheriff Garrett Scott said Walter was arrested near a homeless encampment along the Chetco River in Oregon on Friday. A judge signed a warrant to extradite Walter back to California, according to Scott, who said murder charges are expected to be filed next week.

Esmaeel was working as a courthouse bailiff for the sheriff’s department and joined the agency a little over three years ago, Scott said. She and Walter had been living together. The sheriff declined to say how Esmaeel was killed.

Sheriff’s deputies had several prior contacts with Walter over what Scott described as “mental health episodes,” including instances where he had threatened suicide. Deputies were able to connect him with service providers in those incidents, Scott said. It was not clear how long ago those episodes took place, and Scott said deputies had not interacted with Walter recently.