Mom’s Gang Member BF Piledrives Son For “Coming Out”
Anthony Nolan Avalos was born on May 4th, 2008, in Los Angeles, California. As of the date that I’m sharing his story with you all, he should have been celebrating his 15th birthday. He was born to parents Heather Maxine Barron and Victor Avalos, who were both teenagers. He was also the big brother to six half-siblings named Destiny, Raphael, Angel, Noah, Bella, and David. Soon after Anthony was born, Victor, who worked as a construction worker, had to take off to Mexico. Victor was able to keep in contact through video calls, but the mother had a difficult time making ends meet at her part-time job at a local Subway. She went on to live with Anthony and later his other siblings in a cluttered, chaotic apartment off of Challenger Way in Lancaster, California.
His Aunt Maria Barron quoted: “He was very loving and always wanted to cuddle. He was a hard worker; dancing was something he always enjoyed. He loved watching football with his Uncle David, he loved the Cowboys. He loved going to the park. He was good at playing video games. He always enjoyed eating pupusas when his mama would make them for him.”
His mother, Heather, didn’t have the greatest start in life. She grew up with two older siblings named Crystal and David. After her mother, Wendy, left her father when she was just four years old, she married a man named Roger Brown, who was an ex-con she’d been pen pals with while he was still serving his sentence. Now, Wendy told the kids he’d been incarcerated for robbery, but the truth came out soon enough. According to Heather, she and her sister were repeatedly SA’d [sexually assaulted] by their stepfather. Now you would think after what she and her sister endured, Heather would keep her son away from him, but she did not.
Heather would leave Anthony with Roger from time to time. She said she wasn’t worried about Anthony’s safety because Roger preferred girls to boys, but unfortunately, as it turned out, she was wrong about that. When Anthony was just four years old, his mother brought him to a health clinic after he claimed that someone in the family had been touching him in an inappropriate manner. The visit resulted in the first of many calls to the CA [child abuse] hotline. DCFS records indicated that investigators concluded that the misconduct had occurred, but they did not set up ongoing supervision or counseling after assurances from Anthony’s mother that she would find him help and keep him away from the person that was hurting him.
After he turned six, his Aunt Crystal told her therapist that Heather had been beating her nephew and locking him in a room with no access to food or a bathroom. Being a mandated reporter, the therapist called the hotline on April 29, 2014, to report what had been shared with her. The call was taken seriously, and DCFS became involved. Anthony verified the account to a caseworker who interviewed him at school. Further interviews revealed that his mother had not gotten him counseling, and due to this, Anthony began acting inappropriately with another child, which experts have found is not uncommon with victims of SA. Furthermore, his siblings told them that Heather had beat him.
Caseworkers believed there was neglect in the home and referred the family to the Department’s Voluntary Family Maintenance Program. Under this program, children can stay with their families while they work to resolve their issues. The program is designed for low-risk cases as a means to reduce the number of children in foster care; however, caseworkers placed Anthony into the program even though he was considered a high-risk case. There’s often no judicial oversight or an attorney to represent the child’s best interest, which is a huge problem. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the case of Gabriel Fernandez by now; Gabriel had been placed in the exact same program despite being considered very high-risk.
One of the caseworkers assigned to Anthony was Matthew Mansfield, a veteran DCFS supervisor who also played a role in Gabriel’s placement in the voluntary program. In Anthony’s case, Mansfield and colleague Mark Millman brought in counselors from the Children’s Center of the Antelope Valley to provide services for Heather and her kids. According to counselor Luis Ramirez, “Based solely on the information provided by Miss Barron, the assessor believes that her capacity to provide suitable care for her children is severely limited by her poor parenting skills, poor judgment and denial, and lack of awareness of her mental health issues.”
According to relatives, Heather had a history of depression, possibly even postpartum. She’d have crying spells, complaints of feeling empty and lost, and seemed incapable of connecting with her children. These weren’t just normal blues; Heather had violent bursts of aggression that seemed to be on a hairpin trigger. She would hit the children with whatever was close by: a wooden spoon, a ping-pong paddle, belts, shoes, or a hanger. Allegedly, when confronted by her siblings about the rampant mistreatment of her kids, she told them that how she punished her kids was her own business.
Despite having these types of mental and emotional issues, Heather continued to have more children. By now she was 24 with four kids, and she was pregnant again. Caseworkers in Los Angeles County weren’t taking what Anthony was going through very seriously. They refused to remove him from Heather’s care even after the six-year-old wrote a note threatening to take his own life, as well as appearing in school with facial wounds from a BB gun, and finally after he told his teacher that his mother was hurting him.
Wendy Wright, another counselor at the Children’s Center who spent significant time with Anthony and his mother, called the hotline on October 14th to report that Heather grabbed one of Anthony’s siblings violently and dragged him across the room. She consistently talked about her children in derogatory terms and displayed nothing but anger towards them. Ms. Wright told the hotline operator that Mark Millman was slow to respond to her phone calls and did not seem to take action when she finally reached him. Her call was later dismissed as unsubstantiated.
“It takes about two hours per child, okay? I was there in the morning, then I came back in the afternoon, um, and I was there a very long time. Um, I saw nothing but anger towards those children… verbal abuse, emotional abuse towards any of them. So, okay. She seems completely detached.”
Shane Bulkley, another DCFS worker who was assigned to investigate Wendy Wright’s report, wrote in his notes that Heather cursed, yelled, and acknowledged hitting her kids with a belt. He quoted Mark Millman as saying, “Given the children and their age and their behavior, she is doing all she can.” However, both Shane Bulkley and Mark Millman later declined to comment on that statement.
On November 5th, 2014, yet another therapist at the Children’s Center, Crystal Gee, called the hotline to report that one of the children told her, “Mommy whips our asses.” Mark Millman did follow up with Ms. Gee, but the conversation was brief at best. We’ve mentioned previously a scoring system that DCFS uses to rate the children that enter their program. The Voluntary Family Maintenance Program was supposed to service low-risk cases. Despite Anthony being considered high-risk (Gabriel Fernandez was very high-risk), well, Anthony was evaluated once more. Yet again, he scored high, and a recommendation for increased supervision was given as a result. However, Shane Bulkley and his supervisor overruled this recommendation and closed the investigation, saying they did not have evidence to substantiate the allegations.
At the close of 2014, Mark Millman and his supervisor Matthew Mansfield took the Children’s Center off the case and enlisted a new agency, Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services, which again had provided similar services to Gabriel Fernandez through its counselor, Barbara Dixon. It’s unclear why the switch was made, and Crystal Gee considered her removal and its timing very odd.
Now, Barbara Dixon probably wasn’t the best fit for Anthony’s case either, as she had completely failed Gabriel prior. It should be noted how she talked about her role in Gabriel’s case when she testified in court in 2017. During the criminal case against Gabriel’s caseworkers, she claimed she witnessed extensive injuries but withheld the information from the hotline, despite a state law requiring her to report all suspected abuse. In exchange for her testimony, she was granted immunity. She was still allowed to keep her job and manage cases of children who clearly were in need of intervention.
To no surprise, she was also no help to Anthony after she was assigned to his case. The focus of Barbara’s counseling to reduce the dysfunction in the family was directed at Anthony, not Heather. Her case notes show that she counseled him to listen to his mother more attentively and to finish his homework. I wonder if she’d tell a battered woman that she wouldn’t get hit if she didn’t burn the dinner. I digress. Barbara’s notes spanning from February 2015 to January 2016, when Anthony was aged six and seven, depicted him as prone to whining, crying, and tantrums that she said made parenting him difficult. But Barbara wasn’t even taking proper notes to document Anthony’s case. For example, some of her notes were cut and pasted from one session to the next, and they did not mention the new allegations that arrived at the hotline during the time that she worked with the family. And of course, she declined to comment on this fact.
In April 2015, Heather’s brother David introduced her to Kareem Ernesto Leyva, a co-worker of his at a Santa Clarita shipping facility. The two began a relationship that would span years and eventually produce more children. We should talk for just a moment about who fathered who in the Barron-Leyva household as it’s somewhat confusing. As we mentioned previously, Anthony’s father was Victor Avalos. Destiny, Raphael, and Angel were born to two different fathers, none of whom stuck around. Noah, Bella, and David were all born to Kareem. The family of 10 all lived together in a three-unit at the Village Point Apartments off East Avenue K in Lancaster.
Within months of their introduction, the father of one of Heather’s youngest children told police that Kareem was hurting his son. On April 27, 2015, Sheriff Deputy Elijah Goff again interviewed the boy, who was then two years old. He told him that his mother’s boyfriend had violently grabbed him by the ear, leaving it bruised and cut. The Deputy wrote that he saw the wounds himself, but when Sheriff’s Detective Chris Wyatt got the report, he made no attempt to find Kareem, recommended no charges, and ended the investigation.
DCFS workers also did not locate and interview Kareem at any point over the three years they investigated the family, even though they suspected he was at the home regularly on nights and weekends. They also did not follow the Department’s rules requiring them to contact his other children or their mothers. If they had, or if they pulled court records, they would have seen that two other women had restraining orders against him after they separately told judges that Kareem beat them with their children present. It was also clear that Kareem hadn’t changed his ways, because as the relationship progressed, Heather told caseworkers that he began manhandling her as well.
DCFS opened a case in dependency court for the sibling, but unfortunately not for Anthony and the other children in the home. Soon thereafter, one of the assigned DCFS caseworkers, Anna Shortino, saw visible marks and bruises on the sibling’s face and left arm, which Heather claimed were due to a fall in the shower. On June 12, 2015, Ms. Shortino called the hotline and stated that she doubted the claim but wanted it recorded, as she put it, “to cover our butts.” The case was later closed as unsubstantiated.
“You’re alleging more physical abuse by an unknown perpetrator or no? Which… what’s what’s our allegation, would you say?”
“I know you would have to… have to put stuff to cover our butt, I know.”
DCFS guidelines nevertheless required the allegation to be sent to police for a criminal investigation. The assignment went to Sheriff’s Deputy Billy Cox, who had been disciplined in the past for failing to properly investigate an unrelated CA allegation. According to Deputy Cox, he never contacted Heather or Kareem. He stated, “It was routine and common practice that if a referral was called in by a social worker that we basically rubber-stamped it, so to speak, and sent it through.”
By September 2015, Anthony was enrolled at Lincoln Elementary School in Lancaster, California. In talking with Anthony, Vice Principal Gia Grow had become increasingly concerned. He told Ms. Grow that his mother beat him and locked him in a room with no access to food, water, or a bathroom. He shared that his mother’s boyfriend forced him to kneel on uncooked rice and pushed on his knees as he knelt so that way he would bleed. He also described what was called the “Captain’s Chair,” which was a form of discipline that required him to hold a squatted position for a long period of time with his arms outstretched. Appalled by what Anthony shared, she called the hotline on September 18th.
“A little boy told that… told me today that he moved out of his home and into his aunt’s home, he and his brothers and sisters, because his mom was hitting them and locking them up in their room for long hours… and putting them to do Captain’s Chairs in the corner.”
“Okay, what is that Captain…?”
“He demonstrated it for me where he has to put his back up against the wall and kneel down, like bend down. So it’s like, I mean, it’s a thigh-strengthening exercise, it could also be considered like discipline if you’re making a child do that for a long time.”
“Okay, and you said locking them up where? And the, um, their rooms for hours on end. And so the aunt went and took them? Okay, they’ve now gone to go live with the aunt.”
Around the same time, Anthony’s Uncle David Barron heard the same alarming stories from the children during a visit to his home. They told him about being locked in a room, and they said Kareem also ordered the Captain’s Chair punishment. Additionally, the children said that Kareem whipped their faces and legs with a belt and dangled Anthony’s younger half-brother upside down from a staircase. When Heather came to pick up her children, David and his wife Maria physically blocked her from taking them and called 911.
Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Gallardo responded and called the hotline to report what had happened. According to Deputy Gallardo, they seemed pretty shaken up when they talked to him about it.
“A couple of the kids have told me some things that, uh, make me not want to release them right now. Um, I’m not going to release them. Uh, basically they’re saying that the guy, Kareem, that I referred to earlier, he, um… he’s been pretty physically abusive to them. Hit them with belts in the face, hit them with belts on the leg. Uh, he put them in like a seated squat position against the wall for tons of time on end. He locked them in the bedrooms. Apparently he held the youngest, Raphael, by his ankles over, uh, the flight of stairs, and that wasn’t even from Raphael, that was from Destiny gave me that information. And, uh, I tend to believe the kids. They seem pretty shaken up when I talked to them about it. Um, mom at this point says she’s willing to leave them here with the brother… brother’s willing to have them stay here. Okay, so that’s where I’m at.”
“Okay, so you’re leaving them with the brother for, um, for how long?”
“Um, yeah, I guess until you guys come out and, uh, do that referral that you guys have open right now, the five-day referral.”
The next day, David called the hotline himself. He told the operator that the children confided that they had been locked in a room so long that they urinated and defecated on themselves. When their mother’s boyfriend got angry, they said that he threw dirty diapers at them, slammed them into walls, and dragged one of Anthony’s half-brothers by the ear, leaving it scabbed and bruised. He stated that the children were so hungry that they hoarded food. When asked how long this had been happening, the children could be heard in the background responding, “a thousand weeks.”
David told the hotline worker that Heather was self-harming around the children and saying that she hates life, and noted that he had pictures of her harming herself saying that she wanted to die. He also told the operator that Kareem was a member of the MS-13 gang and that he was afraid of what he would do next.
“Let me pick him up and throw him on the floor…”
“Are they like rough playing or is he doing this intentionally?”
“Um, he’s admitted he doesn’t like the kid. So he just treats him like crap just because he doesn’t like him because he’s too hyper and stuff. So he, he locks them in their rooms and he’s grabbing him by his ankles because they had a two-story house, and he would hang him upside down by his ankles and start shaking him like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna drop you if you don’t stop.’ And like, I was thinking if he slips one time, that’d kill the baby, the kid. So…”
“Okay, when did all of this happen?”
“Um, we just found out about it, but I guess it’s been going on for months now. And they, uh, my sister and him said if they would tell anybody that they would be in a lot of trouble. And then when I saw the bruises I asked, um, Raphael like what happened, and he told me. So I separated the kids and I asked each one individually so that way they couldn’t just say the same story, and they all told me the same exact thing. He wouldn’t feed them until Mommy came home. He would give them cold showers and then, you know what an Indian burn is? And he was doing that to him also, and then throwing dirty diapers at their heads. And so, since your sister and Kareem stated that if they told anyone they would be, they would be in trouble… yes. And then, um, after Destiny told us, uh, we let my sister know like, ‘Do you know that Kareem’s abusing your child?’ And she’s like, ‘No, no, no, it’s not true.’ And then when she took her home, she, um, she kept telling her, ‘You need to say it’s not true, it’s not true.’ And Destiny said, ‘I’m not gonna lie, I need to tell the police the truth’ because we told her we were gonna tell the cops. And so she grounded Destiny and locked her in the room and didn’t let her come out until the next day.”
Two days later, DCFS caseworker Ikea Vernon met with Anthony at his aunt and uncle’s home. He told her everything. He also told her, “Heather is my old mom. This is my new house. I am part of the Barron family now. I’m never going to see Heather again. She locks us up in our rooms and makes us starving.”
Ms. Vernon then called Barbara Dixon and two other Hathaway-Sycamores counselors who had been working in the home for seven months. They were supportive of Heather’s parenting during the discussion. According to Ms. Vernon’s case notes, “each service provider reported that they have never heard anything from the children about abuse and neglect.” Ikea Vernon had recently joined the Department; her notes indicated that she was unwilling to draw a conclusion based solely on what the children told her. When David and Maria showed up at the DCFS office for answers about the investigation, Ms. Vernon turned them away and told them that they could get information only from Anthony’s mother. The couple left unaware that they could have filed a formal petition to ask the court to intervene.
Still in possession of her parental rights, Heather brought her kids home during the last week of September 2015. According to Ikea Vernon, she met with Anthony at Lincoln Elementary where he shared with her that “his mother was starting to be nice and she does a new thing where she does not lock the bedroom door anymore.” A month later, Anthony and his siblings recanted their allegations against Heather and Kareem.
In December of 2015, Ikea Vernon marked the allegations from Gia Grow, Deputy Gallardo, and David Barron as unsubstantiated. She also used a computer system to score the family’s risk but once again rated it high and recommended a greater level of intervention. Ms. Vernon and her supervisor, however, decided against any further action. She later stated that her decision relied on the children recanting their prior claims and was unaware that victims often retract their accounts in situations like these. The following month, Barbara Dixon and Hathaway-Sycamores ended their work with the family.
But this wouldn’t be the last time that DCFS was involved in the Barron-Leyva household. On April 28, 2016, Mildred Blue, a teacher providing services to Heather at a battered women’s shelter, reported to the hotline that her children arrived with bruises and said that Kareem had forced them to fight each other at home. They also appeared hungry, with one of the children eating out of the trash. Again, the children denied the allegation when interviewed by DCFS caseworkers, who in turn decided that there was no need to follow up. Sheriff’s Deputy Billy Cox also received a report of Ms. Blue’s hotline call. He too decided not to follow up. In doing so, Deputy Cox violated his own Department’s policy, which requires detectives to conduct independent investigations of CA and not to rely solely on DCFS reports, even if their claim is unsubstantiated.
Near the end of 2016, at least one more call to the hotline arrived regarding Anthony’s family, but there were little to no details other than the fact that caseworkers marked it as unsubstantiated once again. Between February 28, 2013, to November 2, 2016, 12 calls were made to the hotline regarding the family, and Anthony and his siblings still remained in their mother’s care.
Around this time, Heather cut ties with her brother David, her sister Crystal, her sister-in-law Maria, and the educators who made claims against her. As with many cases we’ve covered where parents facing multiple accusations of CA end up pulling their kids from school, Heather moved Anthony to El Dorado Elementary where they had no idea about his prior history as a victim. There, he got to know his new fourth-grade teacher, Harmony Bell.
Anthony was the fastest runner in his fourth-grade class. He earned a place on the honor roll, and his teacher noticed an uncommon emotional maturity for a boy his age. He often collected his thoughts before speaking and asked if he could step out of the room and take a few deep breaths. When a new student joined the class, he asked to move to the neighboring seat hoping that he could be the friend the newcomer needed. According to Mrs. Bell, Anthony was often nervous about something; he held his Bible tightly throughout the day, once quaking with tears when it fell to the floor.
On the last day of school, Anthony wrote her a letter. It read: “Dear Mrs. Bell, thank you for teaching me everything you could. It was such a blessing to meet you. I just hope that when I’m going to sixth that you can come to New Vista so I can see you still. I hope that you can come to my high school, middle school, and college, that way we will see each other for school years without a problem because of how close we are and how we are best buddies and friends. I just want to stay with you forever but I can’t. I just hope you have a good rest of your life because you already know that I’m going to have a good life. Love, Anthony Avalos, your friend.”
Mrs. Bell wrote in his report card: “Anthony absolutely amazes me. He is so kind and considerate to others, arrives on time, keeps a smile on my face all day long. I can’t imagine my class without him.” But the summer of 2018 wasn’t going to be full of trips to the beach, and Anthony wasn’t going to make it to sixth grade or see Mrs. Bell ever again.
On June 18th, Anthony allegedly confided to his mother that he liked boys, something that his Aunt Maria would later state took great courage for Anthony to do while living in that home, and only reinforced how brave that he was. Heather would later go on to tell a DCFS caseworker that Kareem overheard the conversation. The following night, Kareem dropped Anthony on his head repeatedly. In addition, he was whipped with a belt and a cord, slammed into furniture, starved, had hot sauce poured down his throat, and was not allowed to use the bathroom.
On June 20th, 2018, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a 911 call from Heather at about 12:15 in the afternoon. They found Anthony inside the apartment and he wasn’t responding. The deputies were told that he had suffered injuries from a fall, and paramedics rushed him to the Antelope Valley Hospital in grave condition.
Anthony’s Aunt Maria learned of Anthony’s condition and went to the hospital, where she found Heather in the hallway. When Heather hesitated to let her see her nephew, Maria crouched at her feet on her hands and knees on the linoleum floor to plead with her to allow her to see the boy. Through tears, she told Heather that she was sorry for reporting her to DCFS—anything to win her way in. When Heather finally relented, Maria found Anthony unconscious and breathing on a ventilator. His lifeless face was held by a large yellow neck brace; sensors were taped around his skull recording his diminished brain activity. He was just four feet six inches tall and weighed 77 pounds. His tiny body was covered in cuts, bruises, and cigarette burns. He was so malnourished and dehydrated that his veins collapsed, forcing emergency personnel to drill into his tibia to administer an IV. He had a brain bleed and suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Due to the result of his injuries, Anthony Nolan Avalos died hours later on June 21st, 2018. He was only 10 years old.
Sadly, it took Anthony dying for DCFS to do anything about the horror going on inside his mother’s home. As a result, his six other siblings were finally removed from Heather’s care. 29-year-old Heather Barron and 32-year-old Kareem Leyva were arrested on June 20th, 2018, and charged with one count of homicide and one count of torture with regard to Anthony, as well as one count of CA in the alleged beating of one of Anthony’s younger brothers. Kareem was also charged with an additional count of CA causing death. Some sources claim that the two were denied bail; others state that they had their bail set at two million dollars each.
On the day of Anthony’s death, District Attorney Jonathan Hatami and a couple of Sheriff’s Department homicide detectives spent two hours combing through Heather’s apartment searching for clues. What Hatami saw made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. They found blood stains on a carpet, they discovered locks on the outside of the children’s bedroom doors, there was a leather belt in a bloodied hamper and telltale bottles of hot sauce on the night table next to Anthony’s bed. Under a bit of loose carpet in the corner, they also discovered a pile of uncooked rice.
During her interrogation at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Special Victims Bureau in Lancaster, D.A. Hatami said he experienced an overwhelming sense of deja vu. At five-foot-two, 160 pounds, with smooth doughy skin and black hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, Heather looked like someone he had become familiar with five years earlier: Pearl Fernandez. There were other similarities as well. Both women were intelligent and incredibly manipulative. Even while being grilled by law enforcement, Heather tried to take control of her own interrogation. She would ask questions instead of answering them. She demanded to know what the investigators knew. She had a calculating way of turning a question over in her mind before she answered back, always insisting that she was the victim. According to D.A. Hatami, she was Pearl Fernandez.
They were subsequently indicted by a Los Angeles County grand jury in October of 2018. Anthony’s eight-year-old sister Destiny and his seven-year-old brother Rafael gave chilling testimony. Rafael shared that he was forced to wrestle Anthony until he hurt him, sometimes with his mother and Kareem watching. He told investigators the children would have to fight one another to escape punishment, and eating was a privilege that they had to earn. If they urinated while they were locked in a room, Kareem would push their face into the puddle. Sometimes he would stuff a shirt in their mouth to muffle the screams.
Destiny shared a similar story. She stated that Kareem would also make the kids beat each other up. She said, “So the boys would be in trouble, so Kareem would have me and my brother beat up Anthony, or me and Anthony beat up my other brother. Kareem would have us pinch him or sock him.” She also shared that they were made to stand in a corner for hours after returning home from school. “Sometimes you would like go in the hallway, the little wall between my room and my mom’s room, we would have to go there on our knees and carry books and with two weights on top tied all together, we would have to hold it for like 10 minutes.” If the books fell, she alleged they were made to start over for another hour. Destiny claimed that her mom and Kareem would punish them by making them kneel on rice and that Kareem sometimes used his foot to put pressure on their knees, causing them to bleed afterwards; she said she was forced to clean it up.
Evidence also showed they were hit with power cords, vacuum tubes, as well as fists. She went on to say that food was often withheld as punishment and that after the boys were caught sneaking out for food, an alarm was placed on their bedroom door. The boys were also allegedly forbidden from leaving the room to go to the bathroom, which led to further punishment if they soiled themselves. She said, “Kareem would hold their legs, make them lay down, and put their face in the pee.”
Authorities allege that over the last five or six days of his life, Anthony suffered a slew of punishments, both quick and prolonged—punishments that, in addition to kneeling on rice for lengthy periods, included having hot sauce poured on his face and mouth, being whipped with a belt on his body, legs, buttocks, and the bottom of his feet, and being repeatedly held upside down and dropped on his head.
On March 6, 2019, a verdict in Heather Maxine Barron and Kareem Ernesto Leyva’s trial was reached. The decision was announced by Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta on the following afternoon. Both were found guilty of first-degree homicide with a special circumstance involving the infliction of torture.
“The court finds defendant Kareem Ernesto Leyva guilty of first-degree murder under a theory of torture murder in violation of Penal Code section 187 subdivision a. The court also finds the special circumstance allegation against defendant Leyva pursuant to Penal Code section 190.2 subdivision a paragraph 18 to be true. The court finds defendant Heather Maxine Barron guilty of first-degree murder under a theory of torture murder in violation of Penal Code section 187 subdivision a. The court also finds the special circumstance allegation against defendant Barron pursuant to Penal Code section 190.2 subdivision a paragraph 18 to be true. On this count, defendant Leyva’s guilt is primarily established inter alia through the medical evidence presented in the trial, including trial testimony of doctors, photographic and documentary exhibits, defendant Leyva’s own admissions made on September 27, 2018, defendant Leyva’s flight from the apartment when 911 was called on June 20th, 2018, defendant Leyva’s self-infliction of harm to himself—slashing his own neck—observed at his interview on June 27, 2018, the in-court trial testimony of Destiny O., Rafael O., and Priscilla L., and the various tape interviews of Destiny O., Rafael O., and Priscilla L. ranging from June 20th, 2018, to June 28, 2018.”
At sentencing four years later, Heather looked on as several of Anthony’s grieving family members delivered emotional Victim Impact Statements.
“I wish that Maria introduced her into you or us… Anthony’s life, mine, Raphael’s, Bella’s… to know what it’s… David’s… Evelyn… isn’t even your own lives, and you decided to choose… and live… and a man over us, your own children. You decided to let that horrible man into our lives and help ruin everything. You stopped loving and protecting us, and that hurt. Hurt a lot. Kareem, you came into our life and ruined everything. I don’t know why you did it, who you did… you tortured us and hurt us very badly. If it wasn’t for you, Anthony would still be here, and none of us would have to be here doing this. It is also because of Heather that Anthony is not here anymore. He did not… she did not do her job. She did not protect us and took part in the torture. I would have never thought in a million years that I would have wanted to call my own mother… um, to me you were both monsters and Heather, you’re not my mother nor family. If I knew that the abuse would have ended with me losing my brother, I would have said something, but I didn’t because I was terrified… I put it because I was scared and terrified. But I’m not anymore. It is just all finally coming to an end and you both will get what had been waiting for you. I have learned to accept that you guys can’t hurt me anymore. I’m finally free from all the torture interviews. But if I were to have known that this would end with me losing a brother, I would do it all over again with just one difference.”
“Dear Judge, my name is Matthew Barron. I am eight years old and I miss my cousin Anthony. I was a baby when I last saw him. I wish I could remember all our time together, but all I have is pictures and stories that my family tells me. Anthony was amazing company, full of life and love. He always played with me and made me laugh. I have a video that I like to play over and over from him making me laugh when I was little. We never got… we will never get to see Anthony grow up. I will never get to play with my older cousin. He will get to teach me how to play baseball or play catch with him. 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, and I hope she gets beat up in jail because I just wanted to meet Anthony. I hope Heather has 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. I always carry you in my heart, Anthony. I love you and miss you very much. Thank you for your time, Honor.”
“Thank you, Matthew.”
“It has been five long years without my brother, my best friend. Anthony was everything to me and my family. Destiny was a ball of sunshine to everyone, and sadly, because of these two monsters, he is not here anymore. Anthony did not deserve any of the things that happened to him, nor me and Raphael. I am a 13-year-old girl. I should not have to be here doing all this. I shouldn’t be able to live a normal life… they both took away my ability to live a normal life as a normal girl. Sometimes I wish I could turn back time and speak up to a teacher or anyone, but I can’t.”
On April 25th, 2023, Heather Maxine Barron and Kareem Ernesto Leyva were sentenced to life in prison. Both were denied probation in order to pay $7,500 in victims’ compensation funds. They’d initially faced the death penalty, but Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón had said his office would no longer seek capital punishment after he won his 2020 election. In addition, Anthony’s father Victor and his siblings received a settlement of 32 million dollars in damages from Los Angeles County.
It should also be noted that in the wake of Anthony’s death, his family, along with D.A. Hatami, helped protest with the intention to oust D.A. Gascón due to his inability to put victims and their families first. Protests were held in Sam Yellen Park in Palmdale as well as Schooners Patio Grille in Lancaster. In addition to Anthony’s family and D.A. Hatami, the family of Gabriel Fernandez was also in attendance.
Anthony’s funeral service was held at Saint Junipero Serra Parish in Quartz Hill, California, on July 20th, 2018. Father Victor served as a pallbearer. He was laid to rest in a small blue casket at the Good Shepherd Catholic Cemetery in Lancaster, California, his headstone engraved with the image of a sleeping angel and the inscription: “You don’t have to have superpowers to be a superhero.”
