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Funeral To Be Held For Student Who Jumped From Hotel

SANTA MONICA (CBS) — A funeral will be held Wednesday for a Santa Monica High School student athlete who suddenly left baseball practice and jumped to his death from a nearby hotel's 10th floor.

Sgt. Jay Trisler says 14-year-old freshman Matthew Mezza was practicing with teammates Friday afternoon when he abruptly crossed the street to the Sheraton-Delfina Hotel and jumped with his team looking on.

Fellow players followed Mezza from the practice across Pico Boulevard when he yelled what he was going to do, but they never caught up to him.

He was taken to a hospital and declared dead about six hours later.

Mezza had attended Grant Elementary School and John Adams Middle School and was known over the years by many in the school district as a happy person.

"We haven't seen anything at all that would have given us any clues," Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Superintendent Tim Cuneo told the Santa Monica Daily Press.

The funeral will be held at 3 p.m. at Hillside Memorial Park, 6001 W. Centinela Ave., said Cuneo.

The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations should be made to the Santa Monica High School Baseball Team, 601 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, Calif. 90405, or the Youth Suicide Prevention hotline at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Post Office Box 48750, Los Angeles, Calif. 90048-0750.

(TM and © Copyright 2010 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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