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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A woman whom authorities said kept her 11-year-old son sedated and hidden in a closet for several years leading up to his death was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in state prison immediately after pleading no contest to assault on a child causing death.
Veronica Aguilar, now 46, could have faced a potential life prison term without the possibility of parole if her case had gone to trial, and if a jury convicted her of first-degree murder and found true the special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture involving her son, Yonatan Daniel Aguilar.
The murder charge and special circumstance allegation were dismissed as a result of her plea.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler said, "These cases are so tragic."
The judge noted the "terrror and fear" that the boy must have felt during his brief life.
Retired Los Angeles Police Det. Moses Castillo, who was one of the lead investigators on the case, told the judge that he believed the boy would say two things to his mother -- "I love you" and "I forgive you."
Authorities said the boy weighed 34 pounds at the time of his Aug. 22, 2016, death.
Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott said after the hearing that the boy had suffered "years of neglect and abuse."
The prosecutor said the plea "represents a significant and appropriate outcome reflective of the gravity of the crime committed," calling the victim "an innocent child whose life was tragically and unjustly cut short by the years of neglect and abuse at the hands of his mother."
At a 2019 hearing in which a judge ruled there was sufficient evidence to allow the case to proceed to trial, Los Angeles Police Det. Sandra Platero testified that the woman told investigators after the boy's death about her problems with her son in the years leading up to his death.
"She described Yonatan to be pure evil," the detective testified, noting that the woman "spoke very highly of her three older children."
The boy's mother told police that she found him standing over her other two sons with a knife late at night on one occasion, and subsequently had to move any sharp objects out of his reach, Platero testified.
Aguilar said during the jailhouse interview that she gave the boy medication to calm him down and had him sleep in a closet without her husband's knowledge, according to the detective.
The woman told police that problems involving the boy had resulted in arguments with her husband, whom she felt did not support her, according to Platero.
The woman -- who described the boy as difficult in school and at home - - told police that she had sought psychological help for him and was thinking about having him sent back to Mexico to be institutionalized, according to the detective.
The boy's body was found inside a closet, swaddled in a blanket that also covered his face, according to the 2019 testimony of Los Angeles police Officer Abel Munoz, who responded to a 911 call from the boy's stepfather.
The officer said the child appeared to be 5 or 6 years old, based on his size, and his hands were cold and rigid.
Munoz said he found the boy's stepfather, Jose Pinzon Avila, at a nearby 7-Eleven store, where he went to make the 911 call after Aguilar told him the boy was dead. Pinzon Avila "was hysterical, he was panting, he was hyperventilating, he was panicked," the officer said.
Pinzon Avila told the officer that he arrived home and his wife was behaving strangely, then stated that the boy was dead and "that her life was over," according to Munoz, who said the stepfather was originally baffled because he thought his stepson was living in Mexico with a friend of his wife.
When officers drove back the three blocks to the family's home, they found Aguilar walking on the street, carrying a small dog.
"She was very calm and she had like a blank stare on her face," Munoz testified.
When he went into the home and unwrapped a bundle he found in the closet, "I saw a very gaunt, frail-looking child," the officer testified.
Pinzon Avila, who married Aguilar in 2014, testified at the 2019 hearing that he thought of Yonatan as his son, rather than his stepson. The boy was "short, chubby (and) he was playful" as a young child and got along well with his siblings, Pinzon Avila said.
Yonatan "was a big eater," according to his stepfather, who said he never saw Aguilar deny him food or ever hit the boy. But he testified that the boy started having trouble in school at about 5 or 6 years old. Pinzon Avila said he was told Yonatan had hyperactive behavior and the boy was accused of cutting one girl's clothing and hitting another child.
Aguilar had complained to her husband about Yonatan's behavior and said she was taking him to therapy and asking for additional help from school and government officials, but was frustrated and believed she wasn't getting enough assistance because she and Yonatan were undocumented residents, according to Pinzon Avila.
"She would cry a lot because she would say she didn't know what to do," he testified.
A specialist in child abuse pediatrics, Dr. Janet Arnold-Clark, testified at the 2019 hearing that the boy's body showed signs of severe malnutrition.
"You can see how wasted he is because his knees are the biggest part of his leg," Arnold-Clark said then, referencing a photo of the boy's body.
The youngster had pressure sores similar to those seen in elderly patients in nursing homes or coma patients who are rarely moved, despite medical records indicating he was a hyperactive child, the doctor said.
"He was deprived of food for a very long time," Arnold-Clark said. "Two inches in growth in 4 1/2 years is really marked and concerning, and the only real explanation of that is that he had been malnourished for several years."
The doctor also found evidence of chronic dehydration that may have lasted for weeks, months or years. Symptoms of dehydration could have included extreme thirst, rapid heart rate, confusion, disorientation and dizziness, all leading to renal failure, she told the court.
Records from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office indicated he died of the combined effects of multiple drugs, and that other significant conditions were dehydration and generalized neglect.
An expert called by the defense, Dr. Marvin Pietruzska, testified in 2019 that there was no evidence of trauma being inflicted.
"This is a medical condition that, unfortunately, caused the death of (the) child," he told the judge, noting that the metabolic genetic defect from which the boy suffered was very difficult to diagnose and that he believed it stunted the boy's growth.
Also called to the stand at the 2019 hearing were two of the boy's siblings, including a sister who said she was scared of her brother because of the "horrible things" he was doing. She testified that she never saw him sleeping in a closet and never witnessed her mother denying food to her brother.
Aguilar has remained jailed since her arrest in 2016.