The judge handed down the sentences after hearing more than two hours of emotional statements from the boy’s relatives and friends, many of whom referred to the defendants as “monsters.…
Ohta rejected the defendants’ claims that Anthony had been injured after throwing himself to the ground and said that their statements were intended to “deceive authorities” about what had actually happened to the boy.
The judge said testimony during the trial from the two half-siblings and one of Leiva’s daughters — who said they witnessed Leiva repeatedly dropping Anthony on the bedroom floor — showed that Barron and Leiva “worked together to abuse Anthony.
Hatami — who objected to the decision and has announced plans to run for the job as the county’s top prosecutor — told reporters that he had refused to comply with an order by Gascón to remove the special circumstance allegation, which would have resulted in a 25-year-to-life sentence in which the two defendants could have eventually been eligible for parole.
He testified during the trial that he split from Barron when the boy was about 6 or 7 months old and that he only saw him on video chats after moving to Mexico to find a job. He said then that he loved the boy “very much” and still can’t believe what he’s going through.“We loved him very much. But because the system chose to look the other way, he was put in the hands of the devil,” Diuguid said.
Hatami noted that the defendants “blamed Anthony” for his injuries, and that they were both abusive before meeting each other. “I would submit to the court that Ms. Barron … she didn’t have the power to prevent this. She didn’t have the power to say no,” Sperber told the judge. One of Leiva’s attorneys, Dan Chambers, said in his closing argument that “this case is one of extreme, unjustified, out-of-bounds behavior,” but added that it doesn’t rise to the level of intent to kill.
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