LOS ANGELES — The mother of 10-year-old Anthony Avalos and her boyfriend were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Tuesday for the 2018 murder and torture of the child in their Lancaster home.
Heather Barron, 33, and Kareem Leiva, 37, were convicted last month of torturing Anthony and his siblings — starving them and subjecting them to physically and emotionally abusive punishments — and ultimately killing Barron’s oldest child.
Seventeen family members and witnesses testified during Tuesday’s emotional sentencing hearing before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta ordered Barron and Leiva jailed for life.
Barron wept quietly as a steady stream of relatives spoke, detailing in painstaking detail how her actions not only ended the life of Anthony, but also destroyed all those who loved him.
“I am finally free from all the torture and abuse,” said Anthony’s sister, Destiny, who was unable at first to testify, as she cried in court. “If I would have known this would end with me losing a brother … I would do it all over again with just one difference: that it would be me, not Anthony.”
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