Boy, 10, Came Out As Gay Shortly Before His Violent Death

LANCASTER, CA — A ten-year-old Lancaster boy who was tortured and killed last week had recently come out as gay, and detectives are investigating to determine if homophobia was a factor in his death.

Anthony Avalos, died Thursday a day after he was found in his home covered in cigarette burns and suffering from mortal head wounds. The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services has determined Anthony likely died from child abuse, but no arrests have been made yet, and the investigation is ongoing, according to the Los Angeles County sheriff’s department. The horrific details of the boy’s death has shaken the community, prompting county leaders to call for a review of social services amid reports that social workers had been made aware of extreme abuse in the home dating back to 2015. It’s the second time in five years that a little boy was tortured to death in a home where reports of child abuse seemingly went unheeded in remote parts of the county.

"The county is suffering a senseless murder of an innocent child, allegedly at the hands of someone inside the home, while law enforcement, social workers and family preservation workers all interacted with the family," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. "We need to identify how our previous efforts to enhance and expand services and integrate county partners have succeeded, and determine where there are continual gaps and barriers."

Barger said she will ask Tuesday for a review of all county contacts with the boy's family, seeking an answer to why he was not removed from his home despite repeated complaints to DCFS that he was being abused. Barger's motion asks for a close look at services provided in the Antelope Valley in particular.

Anthony and his six siblings were being abused for years, said his aunt Maria Barron. Barron said she began alerting DCFS in 2015, when she noticed bruises and other injuries that the children told her were caused by their mother’s boyfriend Kareem Leiva. She said the children also reported Leiva locking them in small spaces where they had to urinate and defecate on the floor.

Leiva was convicted in 2010 of domestic abuse. Levia and the children’s mother Heather Barron were the subject of at least 16 abuse calls from school administrators, a teacher, a counselor, family members and others to social workers and police, the Los Angeles Times reported. DCFS Director Bobby Cagle told the newspaper Anthony or his siblings were reportedly sadistically abused. The children were allegedly denied food and water, sexually abused, beaten and bruised, dangled upside-down from a staircase, forced to crouch for hours, locked in small spaces with no access to the bathroom, forced to fight one another, and forced to eat from the trash.

The sexual abuse allegation was made against another family member who Barron and Leiva continued to use for child care even after being made aware of the accusation, the sources said.

At least 13 of the calls were received by DCFS and specifically mentioned Anthony as the alleged victim, said Brandon Nichols, deputy director of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.
For Anthony to come out amid such circumstances "only reinforces how brave Anthony was," Barron said.
Although many of the reports of the children's alleged abuse at Anthony's home came from professionals or eyewitnesses, caseworkers who investigated the abuse allegations only marked some as "substantiated," and they only briefly placed Anthony in the care of an aunt and uncle, according to The Times sources.

Anthony was returned to his mother's home over his relatives' protests, Maria Barron, told The Times in an interview.

At a vigil for the boy on Thursday, relatives disagreed over whether he was mistreated by his mother, with a cousin calling her a good mother.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies responded to a 911 call from his mother about 12:15 p.m. Wednesday and found the boy unresponsive inside his family's apartment. Authorities said they were told the boy had suffered injuries from a fall. He died at a hospital Thursday morning, and investigators classified the death as suspicious.

County officials have removed seven other children from the home as the investigation continues.

The case is eerily similar to another that prompted changes to the oversight of child protective services in Los Angeles County.

The Office of Child Protection was established to transform the child welfare system in response to the 2013 murder of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez in Palmdale. Gabriel was long tortured and ultimately beaten to death by his mother's boyfriend despite numerous previous reports of abuse to DCFS.

Like Gabriel, Anthony, was the subject of years of severe abuse allegations, sources told the Los Angeles Times. Anthony died with serious head injuries, cigarette burns covering his body, the newspaper reported. His mother's boyfriend was reported to suspect that the 8-year-old was gay.

A review of the case will involve the Office of Child Protection, law enforcement and the Department of Children and Family Services. The group will evaluate staffing, supervision and collaboration, or the lack thereof, between social workers and law enforcement officers in child abuse and neglect referrals.

Four DCFS officials facing trial over Gabriel Fernandez's death are due in court Tuesday for a pretrial hearing. Gabriel's mother was sentenced earlier this year to life in prison without the possibility of parole and her boyfriend was sentenced to death.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.