The murder and torturing loss of 10-year-old Anthony Avalos was ruled to have been committed in 2018 by the boy’s mother as well as her ex-boyfriend.
According to FOX 11 and a live stream video that the outlet shared of Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta reading the verdict, Heather Barron, 33, and her ex-boyfriend Kareem Leiva, 37, were found guilty of one count each of murder and torture in connection with Anthony’s loss on June 21, 2018, in Lancaster, California. The trial began nearly six weeks ago. Kareem Leiva was Heather Barron’s boyfriend at the time of Anthony’s loss.
ABC 7 reports that the closing arguments were completed on February 22. Both Barron and Leiva gave up their right to a trial by jury in this case.
According to a story from the Los Angeles Times, Anthony’s sister, Destiny, and his brother, Rafael, testified throughout the trial about the alleged abuse that Leiva had committed against them.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Rafael said that one of his punishments consisted of holding weights in the air for extended periods of time, while Destiny stated that the children were forced to fight each other. Both of these accounts were made public by the institution. In addition, she said in her testimony that when she was compelled to fight Anthony, he would let her win so that she might escape more punishment from Leiva.
According to ABC 7, Anthony’s fourth-grade teacher was another witness who testified throughout the trial. She said that Anthony was “everyone’s greatest buddy” and “always joyful and a delight to be around.”
According to ABC 7, she then proceeded to read aloud a letter that Anthony had written by hand and given to her only two weeks before his loss. The letter went as follows: “I simply want to be with you for the rest of my life, but I know that I can’t. I simply want to wish you the best for the rest of your life, since you already know that I’m going to have a happy and successful life.”
According to the site, on Wednesday, a girl called Sofia, who had been Anthony’s classmate and friend when she was younger and is now 14 years old, entered the stand to speak about Anthony. Sofia said that the youngster was “always hungry.”
Anthony would be 14 years old and in the 9th grade if he were alive today.
According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, on June 20, 2018, Barron contacted 911 to report that Anthony was harmed after Anthony was injured in a fall. Barron said that Anthony was hurt after falling. Yet the prosecution claimed that all of his injuries were the result of his mother and her boyfriend abusing him over the course of a number of weeks and years.
The authorities discovered that over the course of the final five or six days of Anthony’s young life, he endured a troubling level of neglect, which included having hot sauce started pouring on his face and mouth, being forced to bend his knee on rice for extended periods of time, being whipped with a belt on his body, legs, buttocks, and the bottoms of his feet, and is again and again held positive side and decided to drop on his head. Anthony ultimately took his own
According to the documentation submitted by the prosecution in 2018, Leiva was also accused of picking up Anthony, slamming him to the ground, and then kicking him in the stomach
After Anthony’s loss, the Office of Child Protection carried out an investigation of the ways in which DCFS communicated with Anthony and his family. It was found that the agency had a total of 13 interactions with them between the months of February 2013 and November 2016.
