Sentencing hearing begins for the mother of Anthony Avalos and her boyfriend in the 10-year-old boy's torture and murder.
Ohta rejected that defense, and said the couple showed an intent to kill by delaying a 911 call the day before Anthony died, then engaged in an attempted cover-up. Anthony was found unresponsive on the floor of the couple's townhouse when paramedics arrived. He had suffered cardiac arrest and a traumatic brain injury.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office had dropped its bid for the death penalty against the two adults 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." David Barron said his nephew will never get the justice that he deserved. He said the death penalty would have been the closest thing. He and his other sister, Crystal Diuguid, testified that they had repeatedly notified the county Department of Children and Family Services about the alleged abuse of Anthony and three of his half-siblings.
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 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.
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.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.
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