(L.A.) Anthony Avalos, 10, Killed by Parents

Case Number: 2018-04725

Los Angeles County is reporting the death of a 10-year-old male of Latin American ethnicity that occurred in a hospital.

The coroner’s office has identified the child as Anthony Avalos.

Manner of Death: Homicide

Cause of Death A: Subdural, Subarachnoid, and Intraparenchymal Cerebral Hemorrhages

Cause of Death B: Blunt Force Head Trauma

RIP ANTHONY AVALOS (May 4, 2008 – June 21, 2018)

On March 7, 2023, the decedent’s mother and her boyfriend were found guilty of the child’s torture-murder.

Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta read the guilty verdicts in the non-jury trial of Heather Maxine Barron, 33, and Kareem Ernesto Leiva, 37. Both sides waived their right to having the child abuse case heard by a jury.

They were found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of the Lancaster woman’s 10-year-old son.

There were also two counts of child abuse involving the boy’s half-siblings.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office dropped a 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.”

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

“I do believe that you will see this was intentional murder by torture,” Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami told the judge.

The prosecutor said that the defendants blamed Anthony for his injuries by claiming that he had thrown himself on the ground and that he had starved himself. Hatami told the judge that the prosecution believes the boy died of a combination of starvation and dehydration, blunt force trauma, chronic child abuse and torture and failure to seek medical treatment.

The prosecutor said there was a “very long list of torture that Anthony suffered at the hands of both defendants,” including being hit with belts and cords.

In October 2022, 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 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.