Steven Douglas Westbrook, 26

Steven Westbrook, a 26-year-old white man, died on Tuesday, Aug. 15, after he was beaten and stabbed in the 25600 block of Cypress Street in Lomita, according to Los Angeles County coroner’s records. 

Westbrook went to visit a friend who lived near his Lomita home the evening of Aug. 13, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Joe Mendoza. 

Investigators believe Westbrook and his friend, James Matthew Sias, 33, got into an argument and that Sias began assaulting Westbrook around 8:40 p.m., Mendoza said.

Westbrook was taken to the hospital with head trauma and stab wounds, Mendoza said. He was pronounced dead two days later at 4:15 p.m., according to coroner’s records. The cause of death was listed as blunt head trauma and a stab wound to the neck. 

The Daily Breeze reported that Westbrook was a former Narbonne High School student who worked at All Access Staging and Productions in Torrance. 

Mendoza said investigators don’t know what caused the argument between Westbrook and Sias but believe Sias is associated with a local gang.

Sias and family member Matthew James Sias, 32, were arrested Aug. 14, according to Los Angeles County jail records, but Matthew Sias was released the next day. 

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office charged James Sias with murder. He is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 11 at the Los Angeles County Superior Court’s Torrance Courthouse.  

Westbrook’s sister, Kolie Marie, has started a fundraising page to help his family with expenses. 

“My brother had plans,” Marie wrote on the page. “He was working and he loved his life…. Even though Steven isn’t here in the flesh his memory lives on as a bravest son, the best brother, the greatest uncle and the neighborhood-friendly kid who would do anything he could to help someone.” 

Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. Those wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.  

Contact the Homicide Report. Follow @latimeshomicide on Twitter.