Marlon Beasley, a legally blind man who lived in a Hempstead Street apartment complex in New London, never regained consciousness after he was punched and kicked by another resident after a party early Thanksgiving morning, according to a court document.

His family members decided to remove him from life support Monday after a neurologist at Yale New-Haven Hospital told them Beasley, who was 38, had no brain activity.

Complications from blunt head trauma and facial fractures caused Marlon Beasley's death, the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Wednesday. The medical examiner's office, which finished the autopsy on Tuesday, found that homicide was the manner of death.

His alleged attacker, Edgar "Panama" Sanchez-Valencia, 44, arrested Monday by New London police, was arraigned Tuesday in Superior Court on Broad Street on a charge of second-degree assault. Judge Susan B. Handy set his bond at $200,000 cash and indicated the charges likely would be upgraded because "the circumstances have changed dramatically since the arrest."

The judge transferred the case to the Huntington Street courthouse, where serious crimes are heard, and continued it to Dec. 13.

Several of the victim's family members attended the court hearing and reacted angrily when Sanchez-Valencia was led before the judge wearing a puffy white winter coat. They declined to comment.

According to an arrest report written by Detective Christopher Kramer, Sanchez-Valencia and Beasley both lived in the Williams Park Apartment Complex at 127 Hempstead St., which houses senior citizens and people with disabilities. They, along with Beasley's girlfriend, attended a party together and were drinking. The party host, identified only as "Witness #3," told police he asked Beasley to leave because Beasley was being "disrespectful." He said he slapped Beasley once in the face as Beasley left with Beasley's girlfriend.

The witness said he fell asleep and Sanchez-Valencia left the apartment and re-awakened him some time later by knocking on the door. Sanchez-Valencia told the witness he punched and kicked the victim because Beasley was being disrespectful to his girlfriend.

Beasley, who lived on the third floor, was lying on the floor in front of a fourth-floor apartment, unconscious, not breathing and bleeding from the mouth and nose, when police and firefighters were called to the apartment complex at 3:43 a.m. for a report of a fight. He was resuscitated and taken to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, then transferred to Yale-New Haven Hospital due to the severity of his injuries.

Police, working with the property manager, viewing surveillance footage and interviewing residents who witnessed parts of the incident, identified Sanchez-Valencia as a suspect. While speaking Monday with the man who hosted the party, the man told them Sanchez-Valencia was hiding in the shower.

Confronted by the police, he admitted to assaulting Beasley because, he said, Beasley had been disrespectful to Beasley's girlfriend and he felt Beasley was going to strike the woman.

He said he ran to Beasley in the fourth-floor hallway, grabbed his arm and punched him in the face. He said Beasley fell backwards, hit his head on a door frame and dropped to the ground. He said he kicked Beasley twice in the chest while Beasley was on the ground and stopped when a neighbor told him to stop.

Sanchez-Valencia had a backpack and two pieces of luggage with him and was planning to leave for Florida after speaking with police, according to the report. Police decided to charge him immediately with second-degree assault due to the seriousness of the incident.

Beasley remained in "extreme critical condition" in the days following the assault and was resuscitated several times before the family made the decision to remove him from life support, according to the report.

Sanchez-Valencia, who suffers from epilepsy and collects Social Security Disability Insurance, has no serious criminal record and has lived in the Williams Park apartments for five years, according to court documents and testimony.

k.florin@theday.com