The mother of a 10-year-old California boy who was tortured for weeks and killed will spend the rest of her life in prison – and so will her accomplice boyfriend.
Heather Maxine Barron, 33, and her boyfriend Kareem Ernesto Leiva, 37, were convicted of murder and torture in March after a jarring trial in which prosecutors revealed evidence of a crime they called “nothing short of monstrous.”
Both were sentenced to life without parole this week for the death of her son, Anthony Avalos, according to prosecutors.
Anthony’s 13-year-old sister, delivering a victim impact statement, recalled her brother as “a ball of sunshine to everyone.”
ANTHONY AVALOS MURDER TRIAL: MOM, BOYFRIEND FOUND GUILTY IN ‘MONSTROUS’ KILLING
“Sadly, because of you two monsters, he is not here anymore,” she said. Neither Anthony, their other siblings nor she herself deserved any of the abuse their mother and her boyfriend doled out, she added.
“I would have never thought in a million years that I wouldn’t want to call my own mother mom,” she added. “To me, you are both monsters, and Heather, you are not my mother nor family.”
Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami, one of two prosecutors on the case, told Fox News Digital that he did not consider the sentences a “win.”
“I am, however, blessed that I got to stand up and be Anthony’s voice one last time,” he said.
CALIFORNIA MS-13 MEMBER ACCUSED OF 10-YEAR-OLD’S TORTURE AND MURDER IS IN US ILLEGALLY: SOURCE
More than a dozen relatives delivered victim impact statements or had them read by Deputy District Attorney Saeed Teymouri in court – and so did two first responders who arrived to find Anthony suffering at his mother’s home on June 20, 2018.
“I may not have known Anthony personally, but I have never stopped thinking about him,” said Diane Ravago, the EMT who responded to Barron’s 911 call and arrived to find Anthony unconscious and his mother without a tear in her eye. “In fact, I’ve completely enveloped myself in him and feel hurt and…
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