Stepmom Convinces Everyone That Her Starved Daughter is an Actual Dog

Stepmom Convinces Everyone That Her Starved Daughter is an Actual Dog

Cali Keani Armela Anderson was born on September 27th, 2012, to Leani Robinson and her ex-boyfriend Tyler Anderson. She had big brown eyes and brown hair that was often braided and fastened with big bows. She had a bright, beautiful smile, and her mother said she was always smiling when they were together. She called Cali “my miracle and princess” and wished she could have gotten custody of the baby so she could have spent more time with her. Not much is known about what Cali likes, and the reasons for that will become more clear as we tell her story, but we can make some guesses based on the pictures available. She might have liked Hello Kitty and Minnie Mouse, since she was photographed wearing a cute pink Hello Kitty shirt in one photo and large Minnie Mouse ears in another. She liked drinking out of her sippy cup with a straw; several pictures her mother posted show her mid-sip, grinning at the camera with the straw in her mouth. And she was a good older sister, carefully holding her younger brother in her lap in a photo, both of them smiling.

Before Cali was even born, trouble was brewing in the situation that she was born into. Think of the worst after-school special filled with every type of trouble adults try to warn teens about. Though he was only 17, Tyler had already gotten in trouble for using and selling illegal substances. Leani and Tyler had dated briefly, but they had broken up when he met Averiana Enoch. Averiana had recently returned to California. She had been sent to live with her mother in Ohio at age 13 because she was getting in trouble and struggling with mental health issues. After 2 years in Ohio, she ran away from home in October of 2011 and made her way back across the country to California. Her grandmother let her move back in and helped her get on medication to treat her bipolar disorder.

While living with her grandma, she enrolled at the same high school that Tyler attended, and they started dating in February of 2012. But soon after, Leani, Tyler’s ex-girlfriend, realized that she was pregnant with his child. According to Averiana’s friends, she was upset when she found out Tyler had gotten another teenage girl pregnant, and the couple had a huge blowout fight. Tyler claimed the argument stressed him out to the point that he had to violate his parole and use illegal substances. He got caught under the influence and was sent to inpatient rehab, which is where he was when Cali was born.

Now, Tyler’s mother, Donna Howard, was excited to be a grandmother and wanted her son to be involved in little Cali’s life. She spoke to Leani and got permission to take the baby to visit Tyler in rehab. Averiana was angry and very jealous when she heard he met his baby. A couple of months later, he got a furlough at Christmas and used his time on the outside to visit Cali, and this made Averiana even more furious because she wanted him to visit her instead of his own baby. Despite her unreasonable jealousy, Tyler still continued his relationship with Averiana and moved in with her after he was released in March of 2013. A few months later, he took a trip to visit his mother and see Cali. While he was gone, Averiana made threats and eventually ended up in the emergency room after attempting to remove herself from the earth.

Custody Battle and Early Signs of Trouble

Meanwhile, Tyler and Leani were involved in custody hearings, and Averiana suggested Tyler might be more likely to win full custody if the couple got married. So eventually, they did. She took his last name, changing her name to Averiana Anderson. Cali’s case ended up in arguably the worst courtroom possible, in front of Judge Cinda Riggins-Unger. According to a Solano County advocate organization, this judge, who has since retired, was known to be biased toward giving custody to the father no matter how unprepared for fatherhood he might seem to be. There had been attempts to recall her from her position because of her bias, but those attempts all failed. One advocate told reporters, and I quote: “This isn’t shocking. I’ve seen Unger give custody to many male drug addicts and males just released from jail or prison.” It really didn’t matter what she did in Unger’s courtroom; she didn’t stand a chance. Despite his recent struggles in rehab stint, in October 2013, Judge Unger awarded Tyler and Averiana full custody of the 13-month-old Cali. Leani continued to fight, but she didn’t have the money to afford the type of lawyer that could take on this judge, and she wasn’t even given shared custody. However, she was only allowed to visit at a government facility. She posted pictures online of one such visit; in the images, Cali toddled around in a pink and blue monkey onesie, played with toys, and hunted for Easter eggs.

According to Tyler, their life as a family was good at first. They moved into a new apartment in Woodland, California. Tyler worked a lot and he was trying to go to school, so Averiana watched Cali most of the time. He said she seemed to love the girl and tried to teach her how to read, and taught her how to run alongside with her play vacuum cleaner when Averiana was sweeping the apartment. Now, Tyler’s mother Donna did not approve of this and told Averiana not to “play house” with her son. Donna’s warnings fell on deaf ears though, and soon Averiana stopped taking her medication in the hopes that she could get more easily pregnant.

Cali had her second birthday in September of 2014, and Averiana’s first son with Tyler was born a little more than a month later on October 31st. When she had her own baby, Averiana’s jealous behavior intensified. She thought Tyler’s family cared more about Cali than they did about her son, and family members started to notice that Cali was getting injured more than usual. She always had an excuse though: that Cali was clumsy like her dad, that she fell chasing her brother, or that she bumped her head while Averiana was changing the younger boy’s diaper.

In November, Tyler’s Aunt Meen visited the couple’s apartment to meet the new baby boy and was disturbed by what she witnessed there. Meen was holding the baby when Cali tried to run towards her, excited to see her aunt, but on the way, Averiana shoved her and caused her to fall down and cry. When Meen asked her why she would do something like that, Averiana told her, “She was going to hurt my baby boy.” She thought Tyler’s family was too soft on their kids and she preferred the type of discipline that she had experienced growing up. She said, “If you talk back, I’m going to pop you in the mouth.” In December, Tyler took Cali to the doctors for a checkup. She weighed about 28 lbs at that visit, and the doctor also scheduled a follow-up appointment with a cardiologist. Tyler canceled that appointment and never made a new one. On various occasions, Averiana said it was Tyler’s responsibility to get medical attention for his kid and also claimed she couldn’t take her to the doctors because she didn’t have a medical card for her.

Isolation and Escalating Abuse

For the next year, Tyler’s family began to see more and more injuries on the little girl, and they noticed she was losing weight as well. Tyler’s mother Donna and his aunt Meen said they didn’t get to see Cali as much as they wanted to. Averiana wouldn’t allow Tyler or anyone else to post pictures of her on social media because she disliked Leani so much that she didn’t even want her to be able to see pictures of her little girl. On the few occasions she sent photos of Cali to Donna and Meen, the images were always blurry and in black and white instead of color. Though she never admitted it, it seems likely she also didn’t want Leani or anyone else to have proof of any cuts or bruises that Cali had.

The family still saw Cali in person or at a few family functions. At one party, Donna and Meen said they noticed crescent-shaped cuts on both sides of Cali’s face that looked like fingernail marks. In the past, they had both seen Averiana grab Cali by the head and face and thought the injuries they saw were caused by her digging her fingernails in. At another party, they noticed face paint or makeup rubbing off when they kissed Cali; as the concealer wore off, they saw that she had bruises on her cheek.

In April of 2015, Cali suffered a serious burn to the palm of her hand while Averiana was watching her. Tyler said he came home and saw Cali’s left hand; it was Saran-wrapped, it had olive oil and Vaseline on it. Averiana told Tyler it happened accidentally when she was helping the little girl wash her hands, but she told Tyler he had to lie to his family and tell them that he was the one who burned her hand because they already thought Averiana was mean to her. Sure enough, when he met his family at a holiday party, Tyler claimed he told everyone that he had been mopping the floor when Cali accidentally stuck her hand in the mop bucket and got burned. When Meen tried to feed Cali a treat, Averiana snapped at her yelling, “Don’t feed her that, we don’t want her to get fat.” At another party in October of 2015, the family noticed that Cali had lost a lot of weight. Though it was warm outside, she was dressed in a long-sleeve baggy sweatsuit and had a bruise on her right cheek that had been covered up with concealer. She was also acting differently. She wasn’t playing with the other kids, didn’t talk to anyone, and mostly stayed close to Averiana. When no one was looking, she was eating food off of other people’s plates, devouring it in a way that made them think that she was starving. Worried about the now three-year-old girl, Aunt Meen contacted Child Protective Services (CPS) and on October 15th, 2015, filed a report saying she suspected child abuse and neglect.

The agency subsequently launched an investigation. When CPS asked about the burn, Tyler and Averiana told them a different story. They said the water heater in their apartment had leaked and that had burned her hand from the hot water that leaked out of it. Social workers were concerned the couple were using excessive or inappropriate discipline but couldn’t find any direct proof of violence, so they closed the case and labeled it inconclusive. After the case was closed, Averiana’s friend Jayla Young Riley also noticed Cali acting in an unusual manner at a get-together at a local park. She noticed Cali constantly looking at Averiana anytime anyone asked her a question, as if she was trying to figure out what she was supposed to say. She also said the girl was “stiff as a board” and standing unusually still, as if afraid to move.

While another parent might have seen a CPS investigation as a warning to be a little less harsh, it was at this point Averiana seemed to ramp up her discipline even more. Even though reports are anonymous, Averiana suspected Tyler’s family had something to do with the investigation and wanted to get away from their influence.

The Move to Reno and The Dog Crate

The Tragic Death of Cali Anderson

At some point, most likely on April 26th or 27th, Cali stopped breathing. On April 26th, Averiana used her iPad to search for CPR, which along with other evidence led authorities to believe that the couple weren’t telling the whole truth. However, both Tyler and Averiana said that Cali died on May 4th, and they both told different stories about what happened. One thing that was common in both versions was that they never called a doctor or an ambulance or got any help for the 5-year-old girl. They also kept her hidden from sight and isolated from anyone who could have gotten her help. None of the neighbors could call for help because they had never seen her and didn’t know she existed.

According to Tyler, he got home from work around 5:00 p.m. and walked their most likely imaginary dog. When he got back, he said Averiana told him she had something to show him. He said, “She goes into our son’s room and brings out Cali in her hands, in her arms. She was lifeless, you know. Limp, lifeless. She wasn’t breathing, so I started doing CPR.” In his version of the story, both he and Averiana tried to do CPR while their other kids cried and the dog barked. He was really committed to mentioning the dog.

Tyler continued his story, saying, “I tell her it’s not working, we need to call an ambulance. She said, ‘No, you’re not going to call an ambulance. I can’t go to prison. If you call an ambulance, I’m going to f*ing kill you. You have to save your daughter, you know CPR, you’re certified, you have a card, you have to save your daughter.’ So I grabbed my phone, I said, ‘I’m going to call an ambulance, I can’t help her,’ you know, and she’s snatching the phone from me. She throws it at the pantry or at the wall, it hits the pantry, whatever, it hits the floor. I’m just talking to Cali saying, ‘Please breathe.’ Her eyes are open but she’s not blinking.” He thought he performed CPR for an hour and a half to 3 hours before he heard Cali’s heart stop beating. He claimed he tried to leave the apartment to get help, but Averiana blocked the door. Once he was sure she was dead, he said he put Cali in a duffel bag, then went to talk to Averiana, who was smoking something in the bathroom. He said, “She’s asking me, you know, ‘What are you going to do, Tyler? What’s your plan? This is your fault.’ I say, ‘I need to tell somebody, I need help.’ She says, ‘No, you aren’t going to tell anybody. You tell somebody, her brothers are going to get taken away. This is God’s plan, you know.'” In his version of this story, Averiana made him bundle up evidence of the crime, like the rug Cali died on and the sweater he was wearing while performing CPR. He said she wouldn’t let him out of her sight, so they left their two young sons alone in the apartment while they disposed of the evidence in a dumpster. He also said Averiana forced him to keep Cali in the trunk of his car when he went to work so he wouldn’t be tempted to turn on her and call the police while he was away from the apartment. According to Tyler, Averiana said, “No, you’re not putting that in my house. You’re going to keep that with you, so if you try anything, I’m going to be able to call the police and tell them you have a body in your trunk.” In Averiana’s version of the story, Cali had lost what she called a “considerable amount of weight” since the family moved to Reno because of health problems that made her vomit and struggle to digest food. Around 10:00 p.m. on May 4th, she went to Cali’s room to feed her and found Cali immobile and unresponsive. Her pulse was weak and her breathing was shallow. She brought her to Tyler and he tried to do CPR on her, then put her in the shower to wake her up. That didn’t work. They both tried to do CPR again, but she stopped breathing. Once they realized she was gone, they changed her clothes and he put her in a duffel bag in the closet.

The Cover-Up

On April 28th, Averiana used the same iPad she used to look up CPR to search the terms “liquids that deteriorate acid” and “storage units.” That search happened 6 days before she and Tyler claimed that Cali died. According to Tyler, she was concocting all sorts of schemes to get rid of Cali, including setting her on fire under a bridge in Woodland, leaving her on the train tracks, dissolving her in acid, and throwing her into the Sacramento River. As each day passed, the problem got worse and worse. They dumped carpet deodorizer over the duffel bag, sealed it in a large blue tub, and put the tub in a box with dryer sheets, but nothing could cover the smell. By this point, she said her and Tyler’s relationship was struggling. They were both frequently using substances and they decided to separate.

On May 10th, the couple rented a U-Haul van, took it back to their apartment, and loaded it up with several boxes. The next day, Tyler called a friend he had met in rehab, a man named Joe Garcia who operated a storage facility. He told Joe he was moving back to Sacramento and asked if he could put a few things in one of Joe’s storage units in preparation for the move. Joe agreed to help his friend out. Tyler made the two-hour drive in the U-Haul while Averiana and the two boys followed in her white hatchback. He met Joe and Joe’s daughter Charlene at the storage facility, but his visit was short. Joe and Tyler unloaded three boxes from the van into the storage unit number 10005. While Tyler unloaded the boxes, Averiana sat parked across the street and watched from the car. He left quickly once the boxes were unloaded, and Averiana drove away after him. They drove back to Reno and returned the U-Haul van.

Brett Wedland worked at the U-Haul facility, and it was his job to clean the rentals after they were returned. He said that the smell in the van was unbearable and that Tyler had left sprinklings of white powder and an unidentified liquid behind. The van was very hard to clean; he wasn’t able to remove all the residue Tyler left behind.

Back in Sacramento, Joe had a bad feeling about the encounter, and his daughter Charlene thought Tyler had been acting suspiciously. It seemed like Tyler had come an awfully long way to store just a few items, and both Joe and Charlene thought his demeanor had been strange. He was twitchy and acting guilty. Because they had met in rehab and had past issues with substance use, Joe was very worried the small boxes might contain drugs. He was on parole; he would get in a lot of trouble if anything like that was found on his property. His daughter Charlene said he should open up the boxes and look, and after worrying about it for a little bit, he finally did. Using a knife, he cut into one of the boxes and inside he found a blue barrel made of thick plastic. He opened the barrel and saw a duffel bag at the bottom, so he cut a hole in the bag. Through the hole, he saw what looked like the skeletal arm of a baby shaking.

He called 911. He told the dispatcher, “The other night some guy, someone that I’ve known for a while, asked me if you could put some boxes in my storage, right. And so we were going through the stuff and what the hell… he literally got… there’s a baby in there.” ### Arrest and Investigation

Responding officers were confused when they first saw the contents of the barrel. The smell made them think it was human remains, but it was so tiny it looked like a doll or an infant. Based on what they saw, they guessed the child was around 6 months old. They wanted to know if Joe had any children and even worried there might be more children hidden in the storage facility, but eventually realized that Joe’s only mistake was trying to help a friend out. Joe told them what he knew about Tyler, and officers began tracking the couple down.

A few days later on May 16th, Tyler called Joe and asked to get back into the storage facility so he could store some more items. Joe let officers know, and they pulled Tyler over while he was driving to the facility. When they searched his car, they found lighter fluid and sticks in the trunk, which he was likely going to use to burn the remaining evidence of his crime. Officers arrested Tyler at the traffic stop, and other cops headed to the couple’s apartment to arrest Averiana.

When Reno homicide detective Ben Rhodes and other officers arrived at the apartment, they split up to gather evidence and talk to witnesses. Officers talked to neighbors in the complex, and many of them knew of and could describe the couple’s two sons, but none of them had ever seen Cali, even though they had lived there for almost a year.

Detective Rhodes knocked on the apartment door, and when Averiana answered, she told them she had just woken up, even though it was 1:30 p.m. Inside, he found Averiana and the two boys living in filth. He said, “Upon entry into the residence, I noted the apartment was extremely unkempt and in disarray, as dirty clothing, food, and other various items were all over the floor throughout the apartment. Additionally, a mattress with food stains was located in the living room, and the kitchen area was unclean with dirty kitchenware and spoiling food left out all over the counters and floors.” Averiana stated she was home with her two children, who were observed to be in the bedroom. She told the officers she had been using coke earlier in the day and she was in no shape to be caring for the two boys, one of which was still a baby under a year old. During a search of the apartment, they found very little edible food in the pantry and mostly old condiments in the refrigerator. Officers contacted Washoe County CPS to get help for the boys, who were eventually placed in foster care.

The detective asked her how many children she had, and she said three. When they asked where Cali was, first she said she didn’t know because she had just woken up. Then she said she was with Tyler’s people. It took the officers some time to track Grandma Donna down and then Aunt Meen, but they were soon able to confirm no one from Tyler’s family had seen the girl in over 9 months. Though she wasn’t arrested right away, officers took Averiana down to the police station for an interview.

Once they had a search warrant, investigators continued searching the apartment. In the guest bathroom, they found a wired dog crate with a pair of handcuffs attached to it, but no dog in the bathroom or any other room in the apartment. In fact, despite all the mess, Detective Rhodes didn’t find anything that indicated a dog had ever been there. In his report he said, “It is also noteworthy to mention that there did not appear to be signs of a pet living in the residence, such as animal hair and feces amongst the apartment’s unkempt environment.” They found clumps of hair and smears of feces on the floor of the bathroom, but they were from a human and not an animal. There was a dog collar in the medicine cabinet, empty dog bowls on the floor, and a small amount of dog food in a container. There was also stale and rotting human food in the bathroom, including part of a piece of pizza, a doughnut, and a hot dog bun. When asked, Tyler said they fed the dog people food because they had run out of dog food.

Detective Rhodes also searched the apartment for signs that a little girl was living there. He focused on finding her clothes, hair clips, or even toys. After much searching, he found a little girl’s backpack with some of her clothes in it, including a hat that had her name on it. All of those items were found in the guest bathroom in the bathtub next to the wire cage.

At the police station in Sacramento, Tyler talked to detectives for a couple of hours but eventually asked for an attorney, so they had to stop questioning him. After officers stopped questioning him, they left the cameras recording. Once he was alone, he was recorded saying, “I [ __ ] killed her,” out loud to himself.

At the police station in Reno, Averiana waited in an interrogation room huddled on a couch and sometimes crying. Cameras also recorded her actions as she waited; at several points, she kneeled against the couch and prayed out loud. Once detectives began questioning her, she tried to pretend that she didn’t know anything. She told them they went to Sacramento to get something “I’m ashamed to talk about,” but she didn’t seem very ashamed when she claimed they went there to buy coke. When officers asked about the U-Haul, she acted like she didn’t know much. She said Tyler wanted to move a dresser because they were splitting up. They talked a little about their troubled relationship. At one point, while talking about how small and petite all her kids were, she said about Cali, “She ate,” slipping up and using the past tense to refer to her.

She claimed she didn’t know where Cali was and tried to make it seem like Tyler was Cali’s primary caretaker. But as officers poked holes in her story, she admitted to knowing more and more. Finally, after the detectives made it sound like Tyler was telling them his side of the story, she confessed that she was there the night Cali died. As much as possible, she pointed the blame at Tyler. She insisted that Cali had been in her bedroom—the one without a bed and no toys or clothes that belonged to a little girl—the night she died. She cried when the officers told her she was going to be arrested. They left the room, she knelt by the couch and prayed, saying, “I don’t deserve to go to jail for this. Oh God, what did I do to deserve this? What did I do, God? I’ve done everything that you’ve asked me to, God.” ### The Legal Proceedings

On the advice of his attorney, Tyler did not share details with the police until much later. July 5th, 2019, he was arrested. The day he was questioned and made a phone call to his mother that night, Grandma Donna told him she hoped the truth would come out, and his reply was chilling. He said, “It’s going to come out and it’s not going to be what everybody wants to hear. The truth is going to come out and it’s not going to be pretty, you know. It’s going to be the truth and it is what it is.” “It is what it is.” A phrase we might use when dinner doesn’t turn out right or we make a typo in an email, but it holds a very different weight when using it to describe the death of a young child. After his arrest, Tyler was held in the Sacramento County main jail before being extradited back to Reno, where he joined Averiana, who was being held at the Washoe County jail. Neither of them were allowed to post bail. They were charged with open murder, child abuse with substantial bodily harm, and destroying/concealing evidence. The charge of open murder meant the DA could determine the degree at a later date. As primary caregiver, Averiana was eventually charged with first-degree murder, and Tyler was charged with second-degree murder.

At one of Tyler’s hearings, his father Brett Anderson showed his support for his son by calling out, “Love you, son.” Later, he told reporters, “I love her. I love him. It was an accident.” Brett seemed to believe his son was innocent because he told reporters they would understand when they heard his boy’s side of the story. He said, “It’s going to be an interesting story when he gets the chance to tell it.” It seems unlikely that Brett would have been so hopeful if he had known more about what had happened.

In March of 2019, Tyler and Averiana both entered not-guilty pleas. A month later, Tyler filed for divorce, and when it was finalized in August, Averiana changed her last name back to Enoch. In July, Tyler finally agreed to tell police his version of the events surrounding Cali’s death. He admitted he found her in the dog crate on one occasion. He claimed that otherwise, she was kept in a room. He also continued to insist that the dog existed and was kept in the guest bathroom.

On January 24th, 2020, Tyler and Averiana both pled guilty to their charges and were scheduled for sentencing on June 17th in front of Judge Kathleen Drakulich. At the June hearing, Averiana was scheduled to be sentenced first. Her negotiated sentence for first-degree murder was life with the possibility of parole after 20 years, but given the facts of the case, Judge Drakulich refused to accept this plea. She said, “I can’t do it,” and as a result, she was given the opportunity to withdraw her plea.

Tyler pled guilty to second-degree murder and destruction of evidence. During his time to speak, he told the court, “I tried my best to save Cali, but the decisions needed to rescue my daughter needed to be made long before that horrific day.” His negotiated sentence was life in prison with the possibility of parole after 10 years. The judge accepted his plea saying, “I understand the decisions of the parties in this case and why Mr. Anderson was permitted to plead the way he pled, but I think it’s a very lucky day for him. And of course, when I say a lucky day, I just mean as we’ve talked about it, it’s an incredibly heinous case and possibly the saddest case that’s ever come before this court.” ### The Trial of Averiana Enoch

Averiana withdrew her plea, and her trial date was eventually scheduled to start on July 21st, 2021, in front of Judge Drakulich. Cameras were not permitted in the courtroom during the trial. Averiana’s attorney Kendra Bertschy told the jurors that her client loved Cali, fed her oatmeal, and was an overwhelmed mother struggling to take care of three young children while suffering from a history of trauma, depression, and mental illness. Prosecutors alleged that she hated Cali and tortured her to death because of her jealousy and hatred.

Grandma Donna and Aunt Meen testified, saying that Averiana had hurt Cali in front of them on multiple occasions and that they had seen bruises and signs that Cali was losing weight. Aunt Meen explained that they had reported the child abuse, but as far as she knew, CPS had taken no action. They also testified that Averiana often told them the girl was at a 24-hour daycare when they asked to talk to her or see her. They said she refused to let them see Cali and they believed she hurt the girl out of spite. Grandma Donna said, “Averiana wouldn’t let anyone have her. She damaged her because everyone would know what she was doing.” Investigators spoke to all the daycare facilities in the area, and none of them had any record of Cali ever being there. In addition to using digital evidence from her phone and iPad that showed Averiana discussing punishments with Tyler and forcing Cali in the corner, prosecutors also presented a great deal of evidence involving the guest bathroom and the dog cage kept there.

When detectives talked to Tyrese, the man having an affair with Averiana, he said he never saw the girl on his numerous trips to the apartment. He was convinced Cali was trapped in the guest bathroom during his visits. He said, “She did that. That is so fing wrong. She did that, they both did that for so fing long. She would not let me in that [ __ ] room.” Averiana’s friend Jayla also testified. She said she had known Averiana since they were in fourth grade together and explained that she never even saw a glimpse of Cali when she visited the couple’s apartment in December of 2017. She saw both boys and thought Averiana seemed patient and loving with them. She took good care of the boys, and Jayla said the apartment was pristine. However, Averiana told her not to go in the guest bathroom because of the vicious dog, and Tyler blocked her from entering the bathroom. She thought it was a little strange at the time, but once she heard about Cali on the news, it seemed very unusual. She told the jury she couldn’t stop thinking about, and I quote, “how weird it was I couldn’t go in the bathroom.” Detective Rhodes also took the stand and testified he found no dog, dog hair, or dog droppings anywhere in the apartment, even in the layers of dirt ground into the carpet. He said he saw the dog crate, the handcuffs, and Cali’s clothes in the guest bathroom. He did not touch the crate or handcuffs, but instead let the forensic investigators collect samples. DNA analysis of those samples found skin cells on the handcuffs that matched Cali.

As part of her defense, Averiana’s lawyer asked one of the detectives if Tyler said “I killed her” on camera. The judge quickly called for a break and sent the jury away. Her lawyer tried to argue that Tyler’s statement was an “excited utterance,” which would mean it wouldn’t be subjected to hearsay laws, but the judge rejected her argument and the jury was told to ignore the comment. Her defense could have called Tyler to the stand but must have decided that things he had to say were just as likely to make her look more guilty. Because they chose not to call him a witness, the defense also tried to argue that Averiana hadn’t meant to hurt Cali, but instead had been too mentally ill to care for her properly.

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Melissa Piasecki testified in her defense, claiming she had a history of child abuse and trauma growing up, and suffered from untreated depression, anxiety, unspecified psychosis, and schizophrenia when Cali died. According to the doctor, these issues were compounded because Averiana was using illegal substances and was supposed to be on medication for depression and PTSD but wasn’t taking it. She said the untreated depression prevented Averiana from doing day-to-day chores like getting groceries and watching her kids. In her professional opinion, she said Averiana didn’t want to hurt Cali but was remorseful about her death.

Medical Evidence of Torture

Mental illness is a serious condition, but prosecutors argued that what Averiana did to Cali went far beyond simply not taking good care of her during a short time when she was overwhelmed and struggling. They claimed that Averiana systematically tortured and starved the girl over a period of at least several months, possibly up to 3 years, and they had heartbreaking forensic evidence to support those claims.

Sacramento Chief Forensic Pathologist Dr. Jason Tovar performed the autopsy and explained his findings to the jury. He said 5-year-old Cali was 36 inches tall, weighed 16 lbs, and was wearing size 18-month pajama onesies, a knit cap, and mismatched Hello Kitty socks. Her height was short for her age—she was only in the 3rd percentile and was a few inches shorter than the average—but her weight was unbelievably low. Her weight was so low it fell well below the bottom of the scale and couldn’t even be charted using the guidelines established by the CDC. An average 5-year-old girl should weigh close to 40 lbs. At 16 lbs, she weighed what a healthy six-month-old girl should weigh. She was 12 lbs less than she weighed at her last doctor’s appointment when she was only 2 years old. This was 3 years prior.

According to the doctor, the only explanation for her condition was malnutrition as a result of willful neglect and child abuse. Her internal organs were also small, shrunken, and starved. All of her organs weighed less than average, and she had no fat reserves anywhere. He told the jury that the lack of fat was a big red flag: “There’s something that’s going on with this child to get to that point where you don’t have those fat reserves on the muscles or in the abdomen inside or underneath the skin. It’s a very severe state.” He also noted that her thymus, an important part of a healthy immune system, was particularly shrunken. Young children usually have a large thymus, but hers was very small, which often happens when children suffer a significant amount of stress. He told the jury, “Seeing that thymus that small was an indication to me that yes, this has been going on for a period of time. This didn’t happen overnight.” In his professional opinion, it had shrunk because of the malnutrition she had been suffering for an extended period of time.

The medical examiner noted that her ribs were very pronounced, and from the outside, she looked malnourished and frail. In several areas, her skin was discolored from scrapes and bruising she suffered prior to her death. She had injuries on her head, arms, and legs. And a very strange wound on her hip: Dr. Tovar said it was a pressure sore, the kind of wound usually seen on elderly patients who are bedbound or confined to a wheelchair. It is very rarely seen in young children. He explained the pressure sore to the jury saying, “That happens to the skin when you have a prolonged pressure to a particular area because the bone is pressed against the skin and the skin is laying on a surface for a prolonged period of time. It ends up causing that skin to have less blood flow because of the pressure and ultimately undergoes breakdown.” Cali should have been an active, wriggling 5-year-old, but instead had been confined in one position for so long she had developed a pressure sore on her hip. She also had extensive damage to her muscles and internal organs—damage the doctor said would have occurred over weeks or months of starvation and dehydration. He concluded that her cause of death was complications of malnutrition, and her manner of death was homicide.

Assistant District Attorney Kelly Kasau showed the jury gut-wrenching pictures of the clothes she was wearing when she died, a children’s Bible found next to her, and Cali herself curled up in a ball, her tiny frame nothing but skin over bones. ADA Kasau told the jury that Cali had been handcuffed and kept in a dog crate in a filthy bathroom for months—possibly the entire 9 months or so that the family lived in Reno before her death. By the time visitors like Jayla and Tyrese were allowed in the apartment, she was likely too sick, weak, and afraid to yell or even cry out. More than that, prosecutors said she had been suffering chronic malnutrition for up to 3 years, which would have explained the weight loss and behaviors Grandma Donna and Aunt Meen observed on the few occasions they got to see her before they left California.

Sentencing and The Aftermath

Averiana was given a chance to speak to the jury before they decided her fate. She told them she didn’t plan to hurt the girl and didn’t harm her on purpose. She said, “I want you guys to know I loved Cali, not in the past tense. That will never change.” After a 15-day trial, the jury deliberated for about 5 hours before finding Averiana guilty of all charges. The next day, August 6th, she was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 20 years for the first-degree murder charge. She was sentenced to an additional 8 to 20 years for child abuse resulting in death, and another 364 days for destroying evidence. But since all the terms were set to run consecutively, her final sentence was still life with the possibility of parole after 20 years.

Now, it should be noted that her sentence—life with the possibility of parole after 20 years—was the exact same sentence she was offered in her plea deal that the judge rejected. Basically going through this trial to end up in the same exact situation. We bring this up to mention that District Attorney Chris Hicks wanted her to be sentenced to life without parole, a sentence that many might find more fitting in this scenario. After the sentencing, he said, “It was a merciless death, disrespectful, horrible, torturous. It’s as bad as they come. Cali died mercilessly at the hands of those who should be the very first to protect her. No child should ever suffer the way she did, and our entire community mourns her death. The verdict and sentence reached today was only a small measure of justice for her.” Averiana appealed her sentence but lost her appeal in December of 2022 when her sentence was affirmed. She’s currently serving her time at the Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Center in North Las Vegas, and her earliest parole date is May 4th of 2046.

Though her release is still many years away, Averiana is already back to dating, posting the following advertisement on a website that allows prisoners to meet pen pals and romantic partners online. The ad she posted said, and I quote: “I apologize to anyone who has already judged me and has any preconceived notions because of my crime. Let me say that my past does not define the woman I am today. I take every experience as something to learn and grow from. Because of that, I don’t dwell on mistakes I’ve made. Life doesn’t come with a how-to manual; if it did, we’d all make it through happy and unscathed. My current and previous circumstances have made me strong, more honest, open-minded, forgiving, optimistic, and less judgmental. I still seek to find the good in every person in every situation. I’m still learning who I am and what defines me. I am hoping to meet people that can be positive influences in my life. I need all the support and encouragement that can be offered along this journey. Looking forward to responding with you.” We hope no one ever shows her any interest, and even more than that, if she does attract any responses, we hope those people don’t have any young and vulnerable children in their lives. By “all the support and encouragement that can be offered along this journey,” what she really means is that she wants you to throw money on her JPay, but I digress. Don’t give money to this trifling [ __ ].

Remembering Cali

A vigil for Cali was held in Vacaville at Andrews Park on May 23rd, 2018. Mourners lit candles, said prayers, and tried to comfort her mother Leani, who hadn’t been allowed to see her daughter since the couple took her out of state.

No one who knew Tyler could reconcile the crime he committed with the man they knew and loved. Cali’s uncle told a reporter, “I wouldn’t wish this on any child, and it’s sad that it had to be my niece.” Another close family friend said, “It’s hard for me to believe Tyler would do anything like this or be involved in something like this because he loved that little girl, but you don’t know what people do behind closed doors.” Reporters also talked to Cali’s cousin Shaylin Ward, who said, “Just to talk about it, it’s like there’s a rock in my throat. It’s not right.” She also said Tyler didn’t seem like the person she knew growing up. “When I see the pictures of him on the internet, the look in his eyes… I’m like, that’s not him. I’m really disgusted.” Cousin Shaylin started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for Cali’s funeral. On the GoFundMe page, she described the tragedy with blunt honesty, saying simply, “My baby cousin was 5 years old. She was tortured and murdered by the hands of her father and stepmother. She deserves a proper funeral and cremation. Please stop child abuse.” The campaign raised $3,492 towards expenses. Cali was cremated and her family held a small, private ceremony to say goodbye to her.

CPS in Washoe County said they have never received any reports about the family, but because there’s no national child abuse database and no way of knowing that Averiana and Tyler had been investigated in California, the case had been closed, so no one was checking up on her. Since Cali wasn’t enrolled in school and was never allowed outside the bathroom—let alone the apartment—no one ever saw her to make a report.

Many would argue that Tyler never should have had custody in the first place. A family court advocate in Solano said handing over custody to someone who just got out of prison or rehab is insane. Their organization tried to gather support for a “Cali’s Law” that would change the laws governing Family Court to make it harder for judges to award custody of very young children to parents just out of jail or rehab, but it failed to gain widespread support and it was never enacted.

On April 27th, 2019, Leani posted the following heartbreaking message on her social media page, a message we wish no other mother would have to post again. It reads: “I hate the fact that I can say my child’s father really starved my baby to death. His baby, his blood, his first child. Man, help me through the day cuz I’m not feeling it today at all. I can never trust a man the same.” Cali’s mother will never be the same. Her daughter’s death has left her aching and angry. If she had been awarded custody, she said, “I would have made sure she had clothes on her back and food in her belly at all times.” And Cali could still be alive, still smiling, and growing up with her siblings.