Half-siblings describe alleged abuse

LOS ANGELES — The half-siblings of a 10-year-old boy who died in 2018 testified, Wednesday, that they had been forced to undergo punishment, including kneeling on uncooked rice, wrestling each other and watching each other be disciplined in their Lancaster home, and that they saw their mother’s boyfriend repeatedly dropping their half-brother on the bedroom floor shortly before his death.

The testimony of Anthony Avalos’ half-sister, identified in court only as Destiny O., and his half-brother, Rafael O., came during the non-jury trial of their mother, Heather Maxine Barron, and her live-in boyfriend, Kareem Ernesto Leiva.

Barron and Leiva are charged with one count each of murder and torture involving Anthony Avalos’s June 2018 death, along with two counts of child abuse involving Destiny and Rafael.

The murder count includes the special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture. Over the objection of Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office dropped its bid for the death penalty against the two after the election of District Attorney George Gascón, who issued a directive that “a sentence of death is never an appropriate resolution in any case.”

Barron, 33, and Leiva, 37, now face a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole if they are convicted as charged.

Destiny O., now 13 years old, testified that Anthony Avalos had been forced to undergo a series of punishments the night before her mother called 911 to report that he was not breathing, including Leiva picking him up and dropping him “probably 10 (times) or a little more.”

“I think it was giving him brain damage,” she said, noting that the boy was “saying weird things.”

“Where was Mommy?” the prosecutor asked.

“She was watching,” the seventh-grader testified.

She said her mother subsequently directed her and Rafael not to say anything to the police when they were called to the house the next day.

Rafael, who is now 12, said he saw Anthony Avalos being dropped by Leiva about 20 times the night before his mother called 911 to report that his half-brother wasn’t breathing. He said his mother “didn’t try to protect Anthony.”

He acknowledged that he didn’t initially tell police about what had happened because he was trying to protect his mother, but testified that he didn’t want to cover it up any longer “now that I see what she did.”

The sixth-grader — who now lives with his sister, their aunt and their grandmother — testified that his mother and her boyfriend made the children kneel on rice even though it hurt and they cried.

“Did your knees get sore?” the prosecutor asked.

“Yes,” he testified.

“Did they ever bleed?” the prosecutor asked, with the boy responding affirmatively and saying that the children were sometimes pushed into the rice.

He said that punishment could sometimes last hours — or even all day.

The boy said things changed after Leiva moved into their home and acknowledged that his mother was not in the room when Leiva directed the two boys to fight each other as a disciplinary measure. He said he remembered thinking that Anthony Avalos’s death was Leiva’s fault.

He testified that he doesn’t love his mother as much as he used to, explaining that his feelings have changed since he began to “realize all the bad things she did to me.”

Destiny — who wiped away tears at least one point during her testimony as her mother sat seemingly emotionless across the courtroom — said she had considered telling a teacher about the alleged abuse. But she testified that her mother had directed her, “What happens in the house stays in the house.”

When asked if she remembered any times that Anthony Avalos had thrown himself on the ground — as Barron repeatedly told police during two lengthy interviews, the girl responded, “No, he would never do that.”

She said Leiva “forced” the other siblings to watch whenever any of the children were being punished.