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Thread: Heather Maxine Barron and Kareem Ernesto Leiva Sentenced to LWOP in 2018 CA Slaying of Anthony Avalos

  1. #11
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    September trial date planned in Avalos death

    By Valley Press Staff Report

    PALMDALE — The case against Heather Maxine Barron, 32, and Kareem Ernesto Leiva, 36, on charges that they allegedly murdered and tortured Barron’s son, Anthony Avalos, 10, and abused two other children in the household, will officially start, on Sept. 26, in Department 108 in downtown Los Angeles.

    Barron and Leiva will be tried together but with two juries. A grand jury indicted Barron and Leiva, in October 2018, on charges that they murdered the boy and abused two other children in the household.

    Prosecutors announced, in August 2019, their intent to seek the death penalty in the case under former Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey. However, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, under then-new DA George Gascón, dropped its bid for the death penalty, in May 2021.

    Barron, and Leiva now face a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted as charged of murder and torture, along with the special-circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture, for Anthony Avalos’ June 2018 death.

    In court papers, prosecutors alleged that Anthony was severely tortured during the last five or six days of his life by Barron and Leiva, who “abused, beat, assaulted and tortured” him.

    The alleged abuse included whipping the boy with a belt and a looped cord, pouring hot sauce on his face and mouth, holding him by his feet and dropping him on his head repeatedly, according to the court papers.

    Deputies and paramedics responded to a 911 call from Barron about 12:15 p.m., June 20, and found her son unresponsive inside his family’s apartment.

    Authorities said they were told that the child had suffered injuries from a fall, but investigators quickly classified the death as “suspicious.”

    The boy died early the next morning, authorities said.

    https://www.avpress.com/news/septemb...8c5588531.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #12
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    Anthony Avalos: Trial begins in murder, torture of 10-year-old Lancaster boy

    By Fox 11 Digital Team

    LANCASTER, Calif. - A prosecutor told a judge Wednesday that a Lancaster woman and her boyfriend tortured and abused her 10-year-old son for two weeks before his death, while an attorney for the male defendant countered that his client should be acquitted of murder.

    Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta was chosen to hear the case after both sides waived their right to a jury trial for Heather Maxine Barron, 33, and Kareem Ernesto Leiva, 37, who are charged in Anthony Avalos' June 2018 death.

    The two are charged with one count each of murder and torture involving Anthony's death, along with two counts of child abuse involving two of the boy's half-siblings.

    In May 2021, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office reversed course and announced it would no longer seek the death penalty against the pair, who now faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

    Barron and Leiva's trial is expected to last five weeks.

    Avalos was starved and tortured for days before his death, sometimes by younger brothers and sisters forced to take part in the beatings, according to prosecutors who have charged his mother and her boyfriend with his murder.

    The torture included slamming the boy onto the bedroom floor, whipping him with a belt and cord, pouring hot sauce into his mouth and forbidding him to use the bathroom, according to the documents.

    "Despite these continued allegations of abuse, and some being found substantiated, DCFS continued to leave the children in Barron's and Leiva's care, exposing Anthony and his half-siblings to continued torture and abuse," the plaintiffs' court papers alleged.

    Eight siblings witnessed and were forced to take part in some of the abuse, which according to the documents included making the other children fight Anthony and forcing the children to keep watch "so Anthony would remain standing or kneeling."

    Sheriff’s deputies were called to Anthony’s home a day before he died at a hospital. His mother said the boy had fallen down a set of stairs.

    Anthony was taken to a local hospital where his heart stopped. Authorities added he suffered a traumatic brain injury and a brain bleed.

    The prosecutor said the boy was "already brain dead" and had been lying on the floor in the family's townhouse "for at least a day, possibly more" when Barron called 911 to seek assistance for the boy, and that the two "concocted a story that Anthony Avalos had injured himself."

    The boy had "new and old injuries -- literally from head to toe," the deputy district attorney said, showing a photo of the boy while he was alive and then in a video from the hospital in which some of his injuries were depicted.

    The prosecutor played an audio recording of an interview with Barron, in which she told investigators, "I promise I did not hurt my son. I did not let nobody hurt my son ... I swear he was just acting up and he threw himself because he didn't want to eat."

    She told investigators that the boy said he might be gay and that she responded that she would love him no matter what because he was her "baby."

    Investigators found Anthony also had reddened eyes and numerous bruises, cuts and scrapes on his forehead, nose, mouth, cheek, neck, legs, shoulder, hips, back, buttocks, stomach, ankle, legs and foot.

    LA County child welfare officials had received a dozen referrals of suspected child abuse about the boy from 2013 until 2016. Anthony had been removed from his home for several months when some of the reports of abuse were substantiated. He was returned after family members received in-home counseling, welfare officials said.

    After Anthony’s death, authorities removed the eight other children — aged between 11 months and 12 years old — from the home and placed them in the care of county child welfare workers.

    Anthony's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against LA County, alleging the county and multiple social workers of failing to properly respond to reports of abuses of Anthony and his half-siblings. The county settled that case for $32 million.

    One of Leiva's attorneys, Dan Chambers, countered that the evidence would demonstrate that there is "reasonable doubt" involving the murder charge against his client.

    He said the two major issues will be "a lack of intent to kill" and the issue of "causation."

    The defense lawyer questioned the accounts of the boy's half-siblings, whose testimony he said has changed over time and is "inconsistent with the medical evidence."

    "This case is a case of severe abuse, but as to Mr. Leiva, it is not a murder," the defense lawyer told the judge.

    Barron's sister-in-law, Maria Barron, testified that Anthony came to live with her and her husband on two occasions -- first in 2014 and again in 2015 -- and that she had offered to keep him and three of his half-siblings.

    "She told me no. She needed her benefits," she said, adding later that Barron didn't allow her or her husband to see the children again after they reported that the children said they were being abused.

    https://www.foxla.com/news/anthony-a...rguments-begin
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #13
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    Anthony Avalos Looked Malnourished, Mother Didn't Seem Upset: Witnesses

    By City News Service

    A 10-year-old Lancaster boy looked dead when authorities were called to his home in 2018, but his mother didn't appear to be very upset, witnesses testified Monday in the murder trial of the woman and her boyfriend.

    Kenney Kinsner, a firefighter/paramedic with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, told Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta that Anthony Avalos “looked very sick” and “malnourished,” and had cuts, scrapes and bruises from head to toe as paramedics tried to revive the boy while he was in full cardiac arrest June 20, 2018.

    The testimony came during the non-jury trial of Heather Maxine Barron and her boyfriend, Kareem Ernesto Leiva, who are charged with one count each of murder and torture involving Anthony's death, along with two counts of child abuse involving two of the boy's half-siblings.

    The murder count includes the special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture. Over the objection of Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office dropped its bid for the death penalty against the two after the election of District Attorney George Gascón, who issued a directive that “a sentence of death is never an appropriate resolution in any case.”

    Barron, 33, and Leiva, 37, now face a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole if they are convicted as charged.

    When asked about Barron's demeanor that day, Kinsner said. “It didn't fit. Personally, I would have been a bit more hysterical.” The firefighter-paramedic said the woman “just didn't seem very upset
    that her child was on the floor (and) we were doing CPR on him.”

    “Was she crying at all?” Deputy District Attorney Saeed Teymouri asked.

    “No,” the firefighter responded. “I recall her saying, ‘Come on, Anthony, come on, Anthony,’” he said, noting that he didn't believe her statement was genuine.

    Under cross-examination by one of Barron's attorneys, Kinsner acknowledged that he had never met the boy's mother before and doesn't know how she reacts.

    Now-retired Los Angeles County firefighter Ronald Watts grew emotional when asked to describe the boy's condition that day.

    “He looked dead. His eyes were sunken. You could count his ribs,” he said. “His knees had sores on them. He looked dead.

    “Does it still trouble you today?” the prosecutor asked.

    “If I think of it,” Watts said. He said he was “skeptical” when he overheard an explanation about the boy's injuries, saying somebody said the youngster had been outside playing the day before.

    “Something wasn't right about his appearance, like maybe he had been sick a while,” the retired firefighter testified.

    Veteran Los Angeles County firefighter Neal Eggers testified that the boy appeared “very skinny, like malnourished” and had bruises in different stages of healing. He said paramedics unsuccessfully tried to revive the boy, who was never able to resume breathing on his own, noting that he had never seen a child before in that condition.

    Diane Ravago, an emergency medical technician at the time, said Barron's demeanor was “kind of calm.”

    “Was she crying?” Teymouri asked.

    “No,” the emergency medical technician responded.

    “Was she screaming?” the deputy district attorney asked.

    “No,” Ravago again responded.

    She said she heard Barron initially say that her son hit his head the day before while playing basketball and then say that he had a tantrum and was throwing his head back.

    “The answers were not straight-forward,” she said.

    The emergency medical technician, who is now a paramedic, testified that the boy had numerous abrasions, scratches and bruising and looked “emaciated,” “malnourished” and “like a cancer patient.”

    “Did he look alive to you?”' the prosecutor asked.

    “Not at all,” Ravago responded.

    The emergency medical technician said she stayed at the hospital for about two hours because she “wanted to see it through.”

    “This was horrific,” she said.

    The judge is expected to hear testimony Tuesday from four employees of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, with three of the boy's half- siblings expected to be called to the stand later this week.

    In his opening statement last week, Teymouri told the judge that Barron and Leiva tortured and abused Anthony for two weeks before his death, while an attorney for Leiva countered that his client should be acquitted of murder.

    “Anthony Avalos graduated the fourth grade on June 7th, 2018, and for two consecutive weeks he was abused and tortured every single day culminating to when the first responders found his lifeless body on June 20th,” Teymouri said.

    The boy died early the next morning.

    Teymouri told the judge that there had been multiple contacts with the county's Department of Children and Family Services dating back to 2014.

    “She's been torturing her kids for a long period of time, and once defendant Leiva came into the picture it turned deadly,” he said.

    The prosecutor said the boy was “already brain dead” and had been lying on the floor in the family's townhouse “for at least a day, possibly more” when Barron called 911 to seek assistance for the boy, and that the two “concocted a story that Anthony Avalos had injured himself.”

    The boy had “new and old injuries -- literally from head to toe,” the deputy district attorney said, showing a photo of the boy while he was alive and then in a video from the hospital in which some of his injuries were depicted.

    The prosecutor played an audio recording of an interview with Barron, in which she told investigators, “I promise I did not hurt my son. I did not let nobody hurt my son ... I swear he was just acting up and he threw himself because he didn't want to eat.”

    She told investigators that the boy said he might be gay and that she responded that she would love him no matter what because he was her “baby.”

    Leiva subsequently acknowledged that he had the boy kneel on uncooked rice and admitted that he had rendered him unconscious for about five minutes just days earlier, according to the prosecutor.

    Leiva's attorney countered that the evidence would demonstrate that there is “reasonable doubt” involving the murder charge against his client.

    Dan Chambers said the two major issues will be “a lack of intent to kill” and the issues of “causation.”

    The defense lawyer questioned the accounts of the boy's half-siblings, whose testimony he said has changed over time.

    Chambers told the judge that many of the statements by the children are “inconsistent,” saying that their initial statements “showed a lack of any actions on behalf of Mr. Leiva with respect to the treatment of Anthony” and that “Mr. Leiva's conduct allegedly grew worse'' as the children underwent further questioning.

    “Those inconsistencies in the evidence will be apparent and once we demonstrate that it will show that what the children claim they say Mr. Leiva doing is inconsistent with the medical evidence,” the defense attorney said.

    “This case is a case of severe abuse, but as to Mr. Leiva, it is not a murder,” the defense lawyer told the judge.

    Barron's attorneys reserved their right to make an opening statement when the defense begins its portion of the case.

    Barron and Leiva were charged in June 2018 with the boy's killing and were subsequently indicted by a Los Angeles County grand jury in October 2018.

    They remain jailed without bail.

    Last October, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors formally approved a $32 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by the boy's relatives – two of whom testified last week that they notified the county's Department of Children and Family Services about the alleged abuse. The lawsuit contended that multiple social workers failed to properly respond to reports of abuse of Anthony and his siblings.

    The other remaining defendant in the lawsuit, Pasadena-based Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services, settled its portion of the case for an undisclosed amount.

    The lawsuit cited other high-profile deaths of children who were also being monitored by the DCFS -- 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez and 4-year-old Noah Cuatro, both of Palmdale – to allege “systemic failures” in the agency.

    https://www.nbclosangeles.com/local-...esses/3084786/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Edited:

    Anthony Avalos murder trial: Mom, boyfriend found guilty in 'monstrous' killing

    Anthony Avalos was 10 years old when prosecutors say his mother and her boyfriend beat and tortured him to death

    By Michael Ruiz
    Fox News

    A Los Angeles judge found the mother and boyfriend guilty of first-degree murder in the gruesome death of Anthony Avalos Tuesday, which prosecutors have called "nothing short of monstrous."

    Heather Maxine Barron, 33, and her boyfriend Kareem Ernesto Leiva, 37, were both charged with murder and torture in the death of her 10-year-old son, as well as child abuse against two other children in the home and special circumstance enhancements, court records show.

    "For the crime charged in court 1, murder…the court finds defendant Kareem Ernesto Leiva guilty of first-degree murder," Judge Sam Ohta read Tuesday afternoon, before a collective gasp in the gallery interrupted him.

    He warned the courtroom to remain quiet and read the same verdict for Barron.

    "The court finds defendant Heather Maxine Barron guilty of first-degree murder under a theory of torture murder," Ohta said.

    The verdicts come more than a month after the couple's bench trial began.

    Following the verdict, prosecutors and other members of Anthony's family were expected to hold a press conference on the 12th floor of the courthouse.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/anthony-a...strous-killing
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #15
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    Sentencing is near for two in Avalos death

    By Staff Reports
    Antelope Valley Press

    Heather Maxine Barron, 33, and Kareem Ernesto Leiva, 37, are due to be sentenced on April 25, after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta found the pair guilty of first-degree torture murder for Barron’s 10-year-old son Anthony Avalos, who died June 21, 2018.

    The judge also found true the special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture of Avalos.

    The two were also convicted of two counts of child abuse involving the boy’s half-siblings, identified in court as “Destiny O.” and “Rafael O,” although the judge rejected an enhancement of great bodily injury against Leiva involving Rafael.

    Barron and Leiva face a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    Over Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami’s objection, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office had dropped its bid for the death penalty against the two in May 2021, after the election of District Attorney George Gascón, who issued a directive that “a sentence of death is never an appropriate resolution in any case.”

    The prosecutor told reporters after the trial that he had refused to comply with an order by Gascón to remove the special circumstance allegation, which would have resulted in a 25-year-to-life sentence in which the two defendants could have eventually been eligible for parole.

    Ohta announced the verdict March 7 after an approximately four-week non-jury trial.

    Ohta’s 52-page ruling shows that Leiva’s guilt was established, among other things through the medical evidence presented at the trial including trial testimony of doctors, photographic and documentary, his own admissions made on Sept. 27, 2018, and his flight from the apartment when 911 was called on June 20, 2018.

    Barron’s guilt was also established through the medical evidence presented in the trial as well as her “statements made to medical and law enforcement personnel on Jun 20 and 21, 2018 (including lack of emotional response when told that Anthony would not survive but exhibiting concern for self),” Ohta wrote.

    The medical evidence presented through the testimony of several medical doctors presented by prosecutors and by Leiva was “key to deciphering the rest of the evidence presented in the trial for Count 1 (murder) as well as the rest of the counts,” the judge wrote.

    “As Dr. Cho Lwin testified during trial, ‘cells don’t lie’ whereas, human beings sometimes do,” the judge wrote.

    Avalos suffered from severe dehydration where, based on his blood chemical tests, his blood nitrogen level was 170, when the normal level for a child his age would be 10, and that anything above 20 would be a sign of significant dehydration, according to testimony by Dr. Michael Gertz.

    Gertz opined that the severe level of dehydration Avalos suffered would kill 100% of all people if not treated, and that the immediate cause of death was cardiac arrest from severe dehydration and high potassium and the head injuries were a contributory factor to his death.

    Dr. Andranik Madikian opined the cause of death as multiorgan failure caused by dehydration and significant head trauma.

    Dr. Caludia Wang, a specialist in child abuse and neglect, attributed the cause of death was “multifactorial with many different incidents of child abuse leading up to it,” the judge wrote.

    Dr. Juan Carrillo testified that the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head with acute and subacute injuries between one and three weeks old.

    In addition to the compelling medical testimony, Judge Ohta also found the testimony of Priscilla L, Leiva’s now-18-year-old daughter, who testified that she remembered seeing the boy dropped “multiple times” two days before she left the Lancaster home with her sister, three of her half-siblings and her father.

    “Priscilla L. showed hesitation and reluctance on having to testify against her biological father,” the judge wrote. “She appeared highly intelligent and appeared to comprehend the gravity of the situation — testifying against her father and ultimately against her father’s side of the family on a murder case where a 10-year-old boy was killed.”

    Judge Ohta noted a transition in Priscilla L.’s demeanor as she testified.

    “While she never completely attained any level of comfort, the further her testimony continued, her demeanor changed from high level of reluctance to acceptance of her moral obligation to the truth,” he wrote.

    https://www.avpress.com/news/sentenc...9c1d031cd.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #16
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    Anthony Avalos: Mom, boyfriend sentenced in 10-year-old boy's torture-killing

    By FOX 11 Digital Team

    LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. - A Lancaster woman and her boyfriend who were convicted of torturing and murdering the woman's 10-year-old son Anthony Avalos, who died in 2018, will spend the rest of their lives in prison.

    Heather Maxine Barron, 33, and Kareem Ernesto Leiva, 37, were sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for Anthony's June 21, 2018, death.

    Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta found the two guilty March 7 of first-degree murder and torture in a non-jury trial after the two waived their right to have the case heard by a jury in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.

    Neither Barron nor Leiva spoke during the hearing.

    "This is a really, really horrific case. The mother and the boyfriend abused Anthony for a long period of time. You're talking about four years of abuse and about two weeks of real intensive torture right after Anthony graduated the fourth grade. They refused to give him any food or water for two weeks," said Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami. "They made him urinate and defecate in his room and they would shove his face into the urine and defecation. They burned him with cigarettes. They would pick him up and slam him on the ground, slam his head onto the ground. And then left him for almost two days -- laying on the ground dead."

    The judge said in his March 7 verdict that the couple "worked together to deprive Anthony access to liquids for a substantial length of time causing severe dehydration," and that the "condition of Anthony's body, which shows multiple bruises, cuts, possible burn marks all over his body show the extreme torture caused by the combined treatment of Anthony by both defendants manifesting an intent to kill by each defendant."

    The sentencing was handed down after more than two hours of emotional statements from the boy's relatives and friends, many of whom referred to the defendants as "monsters."

    Among those reading victim impact statements were several of Anthony's cousins, including 8-year-old Matthew who remembered Anthony always making him laugh.

    "I have family and I have a video that I like to play over and over from him making me laugh," Matthew said. "Heather, who's supposed to be my aunt, took Anthony away from us. Heather is an evil monster and she deserves to spend the rest of her life in prison. I don't forgive Heather for taking my cousin's life, and I hope she gets beat up in jail… hope Heather is a horrible life. Anthony's in a better place. And someday we'll be together again, and we will be able to make new memories."

    Ohta rejected the defendants' claims that Anthony had been injured after throwing himself to the ground and said that their statements were intended to "deceive authorities" about what had actually happened to the boy.

    "Defendant Barron waited to call 911 until Anthony was literally deceased on the afternoon of June 20, 2018. This flagrant lack of care for Anthony's life all points to intent to kill by both defendant Barron and defendant Leiva," the judge said, adding that subsequent statements by Barron and Leiva were part of a coordinated effort to cover up their liability for the boy's death.

    The judge also found true the special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture of Anthony.

    The two were also convicted of two counts of child abuse involving the boy's half-siblings, identified in court as "Destiny O." and "Rafael O," although the judge rejected an enhancement of great bodily injury against Leiva involving Rafael.

    "When you killed Anthony you took away a piece of my family. You put a hole in all of our hearts that could never be healed. When they killed Anthony, they not only took my cousin only for me, it took someone I saw as a brother, someone I grew up with whom I shared so many memories with. Someone I had so much love for," said Anthony's cousin Dana.

    The judge said testimony during the trial from the two half-siblings and one of Leiva's daughters -- who said they witnessed Leiva repeatedly dropping Anthony on the bedroom floor -- showed that Barron and Leiva "worked together to abuse Anthony." He said the boy died from severe dehydration and blunt force trauma to the head, saying then that "the evidence supports the conclusion both defendants hurt Anthony for pleasure" and that the 10-year-old boy was "helpless to protect himself against the wrath of defendants Barron and Leiva."

    One of Leiva's attorneys, Daniel Nardoni, said after the verdict that the defense team had hoped for a conviction on the lesser charge of second- degree murder and that he was "somewhat disappointed that the special circumstance was found to be true." He said he expects the defense to file a notice of appeal on Leiva's behalf.

    In a sentencing memorandum, Deputy District Attorneys Jonathan Hatami and Saeed Teymouri wrote that Barron and Leiva "assaulted and abused a totally vulnerable victim" who depended on them for nearly everything and that they "took the life of an innocent child" and deserve to be in prison for the rest of their lives.

    The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office had dropped its bid for the death penalty against the two after the election of District Attorney George Gascón, who issued a directive that "a sentence of death is never an appropriate resolution in any case."

    Hatami -- who objected to the decision and has announced plans to run for the job as the county's top prosecutor -- told reporters that he had refused to comply with an order by Gascón to remove the special circumstance allegation, which would have resulted in a 25-year-to-life sentence in which the two defendants could have eventually been eligible for parole.

    In a statement issued by the District Attorney's Office after the judge announced his verdict, Gascón said, "The brutality that was meted out on this young child was unimaginable. No child should endure this kind of violence and torture at the hands of the people who are supposed to love and protect him from harm."

    Anthony's biological father, Victor Avalos, told reporters last month, "It's hard to find the correct words to explain how I'm feeling right now. ... Nothing's going to bring him back."

    He testified during the trial that he split from Barron when the boy was about 6 or 7 months old and that he only saw him on video chats after moving to Mexico to find a job. He said then that he loved the boy "very much" and still can't believe what he's going through.

    Heather Barron's sister told reporters that she wanted everyone to remember the boy as being loved.

    "We loved him very much. But because the system chose to look the other way, he was put in the hands of the devil," Diuguid said.

    Two of the boy's half-siblings -- who were called during the prosecution's case -- testified in February that they had been forced to undergo punishment, including kneeling on uncooked rice, wrestling each other and watching each other be disciplined.

    In his closing argument during the trial, Hatami said the children's prior accounts of abuse had not been believed.

    The prosecutor told the judge that the two defendants are "evil" and "monsters" who should be held accountable for her 10-year-old son's torture and murder.

    Hatami noted that the defendants "blamed Anthony" for his injuries, and that they were both abusive before meeting each other.

    "Together, they were deadly," the deputy district attorney told the judge, explaining that Barron was the one who "came up with many of these torture techniques" and that she chose Leiva to act as the enforcer for the discipline used on the boy and two of his half-siblings.

    "They're bad, bad, evil people. ... They're nothing short of monsters for what they did," Hatami said.

    "It wasn't just Leiva doing the abuse," Hatami said. "Heather Barron participated in the torture ... Heather Barron participated in the abuse."

    Hatami told the judge that the prosecution believes that Barron had seven children within eight years because she "wanted them for the money" she received in government benefits.

    One of Barron's attorneys, Nancy Sperber, contended that her client is a victim of battered woman syndrome, and said Leiva had taken "full and complete responsibility for every act of violence" against Anthony.

    "I would submit to the court that Ms. Barron ... she didn't have the power to prevent this. She didn't have the power to say no," Sperber told the judge.

    She said her client was a victim of a "cycle of abuse" that began with repeated alleged abuse of Barron as a child by her stepfather.

    Leiva was in charge of discipline in the house and forced the children to fight each other when they were left in his care when Barron wasn't home, according to Sperber.

    Barron's attorney agreed with the prosecutor's assessment that Leiva is "evil."

    She told the judge that Leiva survived his own attempt to slit his throat because he is "so evil" that the devil didn't even want him.

    "He admitted to brutalizing Anthony," she said of his interview with Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives. "He confessed to every single act of violence and torture."

    One of Leiva's attorneys, Dan Chambers, said in his closing argument that "this case is one of extreme, unjustified, out-of-bounds behavior," but added that it doesn't rise to the level of intent to kill.

    He said there was "reasonable doubt" on the issues of intent to kill and what actually caused the boy's death.

    He told the judge that the intersection between the testimony of two of Anthony's younger half-siblings and one of Leiva's daughters -- who said they saw Leiva repeatedly dropping Anthony -- and the medical evidence "will show reasonable doubt on the issue of intent to kill."

    He noted that the children initially denied any knowledge of wrongdoing and said that their accounts have changed dramatically since they first spoke to the police.

    "Sometimes kids are just wrong. It's not a matter of lying," he told the judge.

    He said the medical testimony indicated that there was a "lack of external head injuries" to Anthony.

    Leiva's lawyer said it was a "bunch of crap" to suggest that the alleged abuse started with Leiva, saying that some of the ideas for punishments came directly from Barron, whose sister testified that they had been subjected to some of the same type of discipline when they were children. He noted that most of the calls made to a child abuse hotline involved Barron's alleged conduct.

    Chambers said the woman hadn't looked at a single photo shown on large courtroom screens and "doesn't shed a tear" or even make eye contact with her children when they testified, while his client grew emotional and "showed some semblance of humanity" when his own daughter testified.

    Leiva's attorney had urged the judge to acquit his client of first- degree murder and the special circumstance allegation, along with the torture charge.

    Barron and Leiva were charged in June 2018 with the boy's killing and were subsequently indicted by a Los Angeles County grand jury in October 2018. They remain jailed without bail.

    In October, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors formally approved a $32 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by the boy's relatives -- two of whom testified last week that they notified the county's Department of Children and Family Services about the alleged abuse. The lawsuit contended that multiple social workers failed to properly respond to reports of abuse of Anthony and his siblings.

    The lawsuit cited other high-profile deaths of children who were also being monitored by the DCFS -- 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez and 4-year-old Noah Cuatro, both of Palmdale -- to allege "systemic failures" in the agency.

    https://www.foxla.com/news/anthony-a...ibextid=Zxz2cZ
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