LA mom who kept 11-year-old special needs son sedated and hidden in closet gets 25 years in prison
Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers’ discretion advised.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A mother from Los Angeles has been sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison for sedating her 11-year-old son with special needs and hiding him in a closet where he withered to 34 pounds, the weight of a 3-year-old, before dying.
On Friday, December 8, Veronica Aguilar was told her fate after entering a not guilty plea to charges of assault on a child, which resulted in her son Yonatan Daniel Aguilar's death.
'These cases are so tragic'
Judge Larry Paul Fidler of Los Angeles County Superior Court remarked, "These cases are so tragic," mentioning the "terror and fear" Yonatan must have experienced, according to City News Service.
Moses Castillo, a retired Los Angeles Police Detective, informed the judge that he thought the child would tell his mother, "I love you," and "I forgive you."
Following the hearing, LA County Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott stated that Yonatan was "an innocent child whose life was tragically and unjustly cut short by the years of neglect and abuse at the hands of his mother," according to the wire service.
"Represents a significant and appropriate outcome reflective of the gravity of the crime committed," the prosecutor continued.
A detective testified during a previous court hearing that the mother had called her son "pure evil" and that he had once threatened to stab her other two sons.
According to The Associated Press, the boy's stepfather had testified that Veronica Aguilar told him she had sent Yonatan to Mexico for treatment. Aguilar had admitted to giving the boy medicine to calm him down and forcing him to sleep in a closet without his stepfather's knowledge.
She was irate, the stepfather testified, and "would cry a lot because she didn't know what to do."
On August 22, 2016, Aguilar was taken into custody.
According to a press release from LAPD, patrol officers responded to a radio call at 2.15 pm regarding a suspicious death investigation involving a child in the 2200 block of West Sunset Avenue.
11-year-old's stepfather gives statement
According to the stepfather, Veronica Aguilar, his wife, informed him that her 11-year-old son had died. In a closet of the house located in the 2100 block of Santa Ynez Street in Los Angeles, he discovered the victim covered in a blanket.
When paramedics from the Los Angeles Fire Department arrived, they declared the boy dead.
He had been dead for several hours, and there were indications of physical abuse and malnourishment. At the time, 39-year-old Aguilar was charged with endangering the welfare of a child with the intent to cause death or serious bodily harm.
According to the LA Times, which cited court documents, Yonatan lived in closets for three years prior to his death. According to a website for Autism Memorial, the boy went by the nickname 'Chubby'.
According to the website of Autism Memorial, his mother had taken him out of school and informed "everyone she had sent him to Mexico to a special school," after his teachers noticed that he was starving, stealing food, and had arrived at class with a black eye.
