ANTHONY AVALOS DEATH: A man who's charged along with his live-in girlfriend in her son's death acknowledged to investigators that he had disciplined the boy by hitting him with a belt, slapping him and pushing him to the floor.
A man who is charged along with his live-in girlfriend in her 10-year-old son's death acknowledged to investigators in an audio-recorded interview played Thursday in court that he had disciplined the boy by hitting him with a belt, slapping him and pushing him to the floor in their Lancaster apartment.
During a three-hour interview with Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives in June 2018, Leiva said he pushed the boy on one occasion and "he just fell.'' He said he believed the boy struck his head. "Was there anything that was seen or heard that would lead you to believe that any of those bruises were from anybody else but you? The bottom line is did you put those bruises on his body?'' the detective asked.When asked if he really knew why "all of this had happened,'' the defendant responded, "Maybe I need help ... And I can't blame anybody but myself because I'm the one, you know? It's my fault. Everything is just my fault.
Destiny, now 13 years old, testified that Anthony 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 or a little more.''"Where was mommy?'' the prosecutor asked.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.
The 10-year-old boy, identified in court as Angel G., told the judge "they would constantly hit us.'' She maintained that Leiva "didn't touch Anthony'' and said that "no one did anything to him,'' but said Leiva wasn't supposed to be at her apartment because it is a low-income facility and had been threatened by the managers that she would be kicked out if anybody kept coming over.
In his opening statement of the trial, Teymouri told the judge that Barron and Leiva tortured and abused Anthony for two weeks before his death, while an attorney for Leiva countered that his client should be acquitted of murder. The boy had "new and old injuries -- literally from head to toe,'' the deputy district attorney said, showing a photo of the boy while he was alive and then in a video from the hospital in which some of his injuries were depicted.
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