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 am 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 Baron recalled, “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 papoosas 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 had been pen pals with while he was still serving his sentence. Now, Wendy told the kids he had been incarcerated for robbery, but the truth came out soon enough.
According to Heather, she and her sister were repeatedly essayed 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 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 a 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 essay. Furthermore, his siblings told them that Heather had beat him. Caseworkers believe 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 is often no judicial oversight or an attorney to represent the child’s best interest, which is a huge problem.
One of the caseworkers assigned to Anthony was Matthew Mansfield, a veteran DCFS supervisor who also played a role in Gabriel Fernandez’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 Baron, the assessor believes that her capacity to provide suitable care for her children is severely limited by her poor parenting skills, poor judgment in denial, and lack of awareness of her mental health issues.”
According to relatives, Heather had a history of depression, possibly even postpartum. She would 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, belt, shoes, or a hanger.
Allegedly, when confronted by her siblings about the rampant mistreatment of her kids, Heather told them that “What I do to punish my kids is my 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. She noted, “It takes about two hours per child, okay? I was there in the morning, then I came back in the afternoon, and I was there a very long time. I saw nothing but anger towards those children—verbal abuse, emotional abuse towards any of them. 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 in 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 5, 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 Miss Gee, but the conversation was brief at best.
The voluntary family maintenance program was supposed to service low-risk cases. Despite Anthony being considered high risk, and Gabriel Fernandez very high risk, 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. Through its counselor Barbara Dixon, it provided similar services to what had been given to Gabriel Fernandez. It is unclear why the switch was made, and Crystal Gee considered her removal and its timing very odd.
Barbara Dixon probably wasn’t the best fit for Anthony’s case either, as she had completely failed Gabriel prior. During the criminal case against Gabriel’s caseworkers in 2017, 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.
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 your mother more attentively” and to “Finish your homework.”
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; some of her notes were cut and pasted from one session to the next.
In April 2015, Heather’s brother David introduced her to Kareem Ernesto Leyva. The two began a relationship that would span years and eventually produce more children. The family of ten all lived together in a three-unit at the Village Point Apartments 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 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. Deputy Goff 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.
If they had pulled court records, they would have seen that two other women had restraining orders against Kareem after they separately told judges that he 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.
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. She said, “I know you would have to put stuff to cover our butt.”
The assignment then went to Sheriff’s Deputy Billy Cox. 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 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 so that 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. Appalled, she called the hotline on September 18th. She told the operator, “A little boy told me today that his mom was hitting them and locking them up in their room for long hours. He demonstrated the captain’s chair for me where he has to put his back up against the wall and kneel down.”
Around the same time, Anthony’s Uncle David Barron heard the same alarming stories. The children told him about being locked in a room and 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 and called 9-1-1.
Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Gallardo responded and called the hotline. He stated, “The kids have told me some things that make me not want to release them right now. They’re saying that the guy Kareem has been pretty physically abusive to him, hit him with belts in the face, hit him with belts on the leg. Apparently, he held the youngest Raphael by his ankles over the flight of stairs. I tend to believe the kids; they seem pretty shook up.”
The next day, David called the hotline himself. He told the operator that the children confided 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 and slammed them into walls. 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.
David explained, “He’s admitted he doesn’t like the kids, so he just treats them like crap. He locks them in their rooms and he was grabbing him by his ankles and he would hang him upside down. My sister and him said if they would tell anybody that they would be in a lot of trouble. Destiny said, ‘I’m not gonna lie, I need to tell the police the truth.’ So she grounded Destiny and locked her in the room.”
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 Baron 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. 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.”
Still in possession of her parental rights, Heather brought her kids home during the last week of September 2015. A month later, Anthony and his siblings recanted their allegations. In December of 2015, Ikea Vernon marked the allegations as unsubstantiated. She later stated that her decision relied on the children recanting their prior claims.
On April 28, 2016, Mildred Blue, a teacher at a battered women’s shelter, reported to the hotline that the children arrived with bruises and said that Kareem had forced them to fight each other. They also appeared hungry, with one of the children eating out of the trash. Again, the children denied the allegation when interviewed, and the case was closed.
Between February 28, 2013, to November 2, 2016, twelve calls were made to the hotline regarding the family, yet Anthony and his siblings remained in their mother’s care. Around this time, Heather cut ties with her family and moved Anthony to El Dorado Elementary, where they had no idea about his history.
There, he met his new teacher, Harmony Bell. According to Miss Bell, Anthony was often nervous and held his Bible tightly throughout the day. On the last day of school, Anthony wrote her a letter: “Dear Mrs. Bell, thank you for teaching me everything you could. It was such a blessing to meet you. 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.”
The summer of 2018 wasn’t going to be full of trips to the beach. On June 18th, Anthony allegedly confided to his mother that “he liked boys.” 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, and had hot sauce poured down his throat. On June 20, 2018, deputies responded to a 9-1-1 call. They were told that he had “suffered injuries from a fall.”
Anthony’s Aunt Maria went to the hospital. When Heather finally relented, Maria found Anthony unconscious on a ventilator. He was just four feet six inches tall and weighed 77 pounds. His tiny body was covered in cuts, bruises, and cigarette burns. Anthony Nolan Avalos died hours later on June 21, 2018.
Heather Barron and Kareem Leyva were arrested and charged with homicide and torture. During her interrogation, D.A. Hatami said she was like Pearl Fernandez. “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.”
Anthony’s sister Destiny and brother Raphael gave chilling testimony. Raphael shared that he was forced to wrestle Anthony until he hurt him. If they urinated while locked in a room, Kareem would “push their face into the puddle.” Destiny shared that Kareem would have them “pinch him or sock him.”
On March 6, 2019, a verdict was reached. Judge Sam Oda announced, “Both are found guilty of first-degree homicide with a special circumstance involving the infliction of torture.” He further stated, “The court finds defendant Kareem Ernesto Leyva guilty… The court finds defendant Heather Maxine Barron guilty.”
At sentencing, Anthony’s siblings delivered emotional statements. Destiny told Heather, “You decided to let that horrible man into our lives and help ruin everything. To me, you were both monsters. Heather, you’re not my mother nor family. I’m finally free from all the torture.”
Eight-year-old Matthew Barron said, “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 back.” On April 25, 2023, Heather Maxine Barron and Kareem Ernesto Leyva were sentenced to life in prison. Anthony was laid to rest with a headstone that read, “You don’t have to have superpowers to be a superhero.”
