Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Little Anthony Ávalos seemed dead and with a totally malnourished facesaid the emergency services that answered the call to treat Anthony Ávalos in June 2018.
Firefighters and an EMT paramedic gave their testimonies about the conditions in which they found the 10-year-old Hispanic boy in the trial against Anthony’s parentsaccused of murder and torture against Ávalos.
Related: Prosecutors present first arguments at the start of the trial against the mother and partner for the death of the child Anthony Ávalos
“He looked dead. He had sunken eyes, you could count his ribs, his knees had sores, he looked dead,” retired Los Angeles County firefighter Ronald Watts stated.
Anthony’s mother, Heather Barrón, and her partner, Kareem Leiva, face trial accused of the alleged murder and torture of Ávalosin addition to the abuse of two younger brothers of the minor. Both defendants pleaded not guilty..
Related: Trial begins against the mother of Anthony Ávalos and her boyfriend, accused of torturing and killing the 10-year-old boy
Emergency services said that when they arrived at the home, Anthony was lying on the floor of the living room. The boy was not breathing, had no pulse and was so emaciated in appearance that firefighters and paramedics thought he was a sick cancer patient..
Firefighter Neal Eggers described some of the lesions on the child under the age of 10, such as bruises that ranged in color from purple and yellow to green. These types of injuries told Eggers that the injuries occurred over a long period of time.
Eggeres said Ávalos was so malnourished and dehydrated that they had difficulty finding a vein so they could administer medication.
Paramedics had to stick a needle into Anthony’s tibia so they could deliver fluids and medication directly into his bone marrow.
EMT paramedic Diane Ravago was one of the first to respond to the emergency call for Anthony Avalos, and at trial he mentioned the injuries he discovered on the Hispanic boy’s body, including what he believed to be cigarette burns on the minor’s torso.
“Unnourished, skinny, like a zombie. Abrasions, scabs, bruises from front to back, from head to toe,” Ravago described, about Anthony’s appearance.
During the testimony, some photographs of Ávalos’s battered body were presented on the screen.
The paramedic mentioned that Heather Barron didn’t cry or scream and showed no concern as emergency teams performed CPR on Anthony. Ravago also testified that he heard her mother tell two different stories about how Ávalos was injured.
“She said that she hit her head the day before while playing basketball; at another point, she said that he threw a tantrum and that she threw her head back,” Ravago stated.
Another firefighter who was on the scene testified that Barron did not seem concerned about the child’s condition..
“I remember him saying, ‘Come on Anthony, come on Anthony,’” recalled firefighter Sean Kinsner, who told Assistant District Attorney Saeed Teymouri that his statement did not sound genuine.
Under cross-examination, Leiva’s defense attorney, Daniel Nardoni, asked Kinsner about another witness firefighter who found no injuries when checking Anthony Avalos’s scalp.
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