Warning: This story contains graphic allegations of violence against children.
EXCLUSIVE: A suspected MS-13 gang member who will go on trial next week for the gruesome 2018 murder of his California girlfriend’s 10-year-old son is a native of El Salvador and living in the US illegally, according to a source police.
Kareem Ernesto Leiva37, and his American girlfriend Heather Maxine Barron, 33, are charged with murder and torture in the death of their son, Anthony Avalos, as well as child abuse of two other children in the home, records show. judicial.
Prosecutors allege the boy had been beaten, starved, forced to kneel on rice, force-fed, whipped and more in a home where he was allegedly subjected to “extreme physical pain and suffering.”
CALIFORNIA SEEKS DEATH PENALTY FOR ALLEGED TORTURE MURDER OF ANTHONY AVALOS
Kareem Leiva, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, is accused of torturing and murdering 10-year-old California boy Anthony Avalos, right.
(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, David Barron via AP)
While in jail, Leiva allegedly stabbed another inmate, according to court documents, and was charged with domestic violence against women in both 2010 and 2013.
His brother, Mauricio Leiva, is another suspected MS-13 member who was charged in a federal extortion case against a deadly drug ring in 2016, court documents show.
The murder trial of Leiva and Barron in Los Angeles is scheduled to begin next week. Jonathan Hatami, who rose to fame as the lead prosecutor in the trial of gabriel fernandezand Saeed Teymouri are assigned to the case.
Leiva’s defense attorney, Dan Chambers, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
This undated photo provided by David Barron shows Anthony Avalos. Los Angeles County prosecutors charged her mother and her boyfriend with murder and torture.
(David Barron via AP)
Prosecutors previously alleged that Barron and Leiva spanked the boy, poured hot sauce in his face and hung him upside down. He had been tortured “for almost two weeks, until paramedics responded to [the] residence and found Anthony’s lifeless body,” the court documents allege.
Anthony and his siblings also suffered other forms of abuse, including being burned with a curling iron or locked in their rooms for hours.
On June 20, 2018, just weeks after the end of Anthony’s fourth-grade school year, Barron called 911 to report that his son was unconscious, according to the documents.
Police arrived and found the boy gasping for breath and covered in bruises and abrasions. He also had circular burn marks on his stomach. After he was transported to a hospital, doctors noted that he appeared “severely malnourished and dehydrated.”
Heather Maxine Barron, who was charged with torturing and murdering her 10-year-old son, Anthony Avalos, in Lancaster, arrives in court for a pretrial hearing on February 27, 2018 in Los Angeles Criminal Court.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
MOTHER’S BOYFRIEND ARRESTED FOR DEATH OF 10-YEAR-OLD BOY WHO REPORTED ABUSE
He was pronounced dead the next morning.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner ruled Anthony’s death a homicide and identified multiple causes of death: subdural, subarachnoid, and intraparenchymal brain hemorrhages due to blunt force head trauma.
Anthony Avalos in an undated family photo.
(Facebook)
Court documents allege he was held by his feet and repeatedly dropped on his head, punished with wrestling moves, forced to fight with other children in the house, thrown against furniture, punched in the face with a ping-pong paddle and threw him to the ground. and given burnt carpet.
The day before the 911 call, Anthony was unable to walk or eat, according to authorities. But Leiva and Barron allegedly knocked him out for hours.
Kareem Ernesto Leiva at a pretrial hearing in Los Angeles Criminal Court on February 27, 2018 in Los Angeles. Leiva and his girlfriend Heather Maxine Barron were charged with the murder and torture of his 10-year-old son Anthony Avalos in Lancaster.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
“The final blows came that night when Leiva struck Anthony in the head multiple times,” prosecutors allege. “Barron did not call the police until the next morning. Leiva deliberately fled the residence with her children before authorities arrived.”
Authorities had received reports for years of alleged child abuse, according to court documents. Even before Barron began dating Leiva, another adult male acquaintance of hers was accused of sexually assaulting her son when he was just 5 years old.
Despite many interactions with county children’s services, authorities determined that investigations into numerous previous allegations of child abuse were inconclusive.
Booking photos showing accused child murderers Kareem Leiva and Heather Barron.
(Los Angeles Sheriff)
Barron was able to retain custody of his seven children, three of whom he shared with Leiva, who had five other children with three other women. According to authorities, he was especially abusive of his non-biological children and allegedly admitted to pushing Anthony’s younger brother against a chair with such force that he needed three staples to close a cut on his scalp.
FOX Los Angeles reported in October that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a $32 million settlement with the rest of Anthony’s family, which sued, alleging that the case workers failed to properly handle the allegations. Members include the boy’s father, as well as maternal aunts and uncles who are expected to testify against Barron at trial.
Heather Barron appeared at a Lancaster court hearing with her boyfriend Kareem Ernesto Leiva, both accused of torturing and murdering Barron’s 10-year-old son Anthony Avalos on August 3, 2018.
(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Former Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey had intended to seek the death penalty in the case, but current District Attorney George Gascon, who has publicly opposed such a punishment for years, reversed course after taking office. The charge.
