Opening statements began Wednesday in the trial against the mother of 10-year-old Anthony Avalos and her boyfriend in the torture and subsequent murder of the Lancaster boy.

On Wednesday, the trial process began for Heather Maxine Barron, 33, and Kareem Ernesto Leiva, 37, who are charged in connection with Anthony’s murder in June 2018.

Barron and Leiva have been charged with one count each of murder and torture involving Anthony’s death, along with two counts of child abuse pertaining to Anthony’s siblings. The L.A. County District Attorney’s Office will not be seeking the death penalty at the direction of D.A. George Gascon.

In court papers, prosecutors alleged that Anthony was severely tortured during the last five or six days of his life by Barron and Leiva, who abused, beat, assaulted and tortured him.

The alleged abuse included whipping the boy with a belt and a looped cord, pouring hot sauce on his face and mouth, and repeatedly smashing him headfirst into the ground, according to the court papers.

On June 20, 2018, Barron called 911, and first responders found her son unresponsive with severe head trauma and extensive bruises and burns inside the family’s Lancaster apartment, according to officials.

Investigators said they were told that the child had suffered injuries from a fall, but investigators quickly classified the death as suspicious.

“He was so dehydrated and malnourished that his veins were collapsed, and the first responders had to drill into his shin, into his tibia, to administer an IV,” said a member of the prosecution during opening statements on Wednesday.

The case has struck many people as alarmingly similar to that of Gabriel Fernandez, an 8-year-old Palmdale boy who died in 2013 and was tortured for months before his murder at the hands of his mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre. Both have been convicted, with Fernandez being sentenced to life imprisonment without parole and Aguirre sentenced to death.

In 2018, an L.A. County review found that in Anthony’s case, the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) took “considerable actions,” and explicitly stated that these two cases – both torture-murders of young boys in the Antelope Valley at the hands of their mothers and her partner, with previous DCFS involvement – were “very dissimilar.”

“While the death of Anthony was horrible, heartbreaking, and apparently brutal; while it occurred in the Antelope Valley; and while there had been previous DCFS involvement with Anthony and his family, from a systemic perspective, this case is very dissimilar to the notorious and awful 2013 death of Gabriel Fernandez,” the report said.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors formally approved a $32 million settlement in October 2022,  after Anthony’s relatives filed a lawsuit accusing the county and multiple social workers of failing to properly respond to reports of abuse to Anthony and his half-siblings.

Thirteen separate reports of abuse were made to DCFS about Anthony and his six half-siblings between 2013 and 2018, the time of Anthony’s death.

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