The boyfriend of a woman whose 10-year-old son died weeks after coming out as gay was arrested on Wednesday.
Anthony Avalos was found unresponsiveat his home June 20 in Lancaster, California. He died the next day.
“I can tell you that what the investigators learned led them to believe they could file for charges of murder, which he is going to be booked on,” McDonnell said, adding that Leiva made statements that led detectives to arrest him for Anthony’s death.
Leiva will be booked and has a $2 million bond. Before his arrest, Leiva was treated for a self-inflicted laceration on his upper chest.
It was initially reported Anthony had cigarette burns all over his body, however, McDonnell said this is not, in fact, the case.
While McDonnell said there were not burns, he does believe Anthony died from abuse.
Justice for Anthony/Facebook
On Tuesday, theLos Angeles Timesreported that Brandon Nichols, deputy director of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, saidAnthony came out to his family weeks before he died, saying “he liked boys.”
While DCFS is looking into whether that may have played a role in the boy’s death, sheriff’s Capt. Chris Bergner said at the news conference that homophobia had “not come up” so far in detectives’ investigation.
Other children found in the home where Anthony was found are now in the custody of the DCFS, McDonnell said, where they would wait “for proper placement.”
It was Barron who called 911 at about 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday saying her son was unresponsive, theTimesreported. He died in a hospital the next day. Barron allegedly claimed the injuries came from a fall.
Other allegations included sexual, emotional and physical abuse as well as neglect, the newspaper reported.
Anthony’s aunt, Maria Barron, told theTimesthat living in an allegedly abusive situation and coming out “only reinforces how brave Anthony was.”
She told the department the children alleged Leiva had locked them in small spaces where they had to urinate and defecate on the floor, according to the outlet.
source: people.com
