A woman was sentenced Friday in southern California to seven years to life and seven years and 10 months for torturing her 10-year-old stepdaughter and abusing another stepdaughter and two of her own children, authorities said.
Mayra Chavez, 35, was convicted last month of one felony count of torture, two felony counts of child abuse and endangerment, one felony enhancement of causing great bodily injury, and simple assault, according to a statement from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. The 10-year-old stepdaughter’s father, Domingo Junior Flores, is reportedly awaiting trial on similar charges.
Flores rushed the unresponsive, 50-pound child to a children’s hospital in August 2022 claiming that she had fallen down the stairs, the statement noted. The stepdaughter reportedly had a broken neck, bone jutting out of an open sore, and bruises all over her body.
Chavez forced the stepdaughter to kneel on raw rice or tin cans with her hands and legs hogtied, forced other children to zip-tie her and then plunged her face first into a bathtub full of ice, forced her to bite a habanero pepper, and rubbed the pepper in her eyes and privates, per the statement. (RELATED: Nanny Convicted Of Sexually Assaulting 16 Boys)
“I hope you die,” the stepdaughter said to Chavez in court, the statement noted.
#BREAKING: An Anaheim woman has been sentenced to almost 15 years to life in prison for horrific torture against her 10-year-old stepdaughter and abusing three other children in her family. 💔
“She is evil incarnate,” the judge said. “I can only hope she remains in prison for… pic.twitter.com/tP6X1bT1Rk
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) November 3, 2023
The two stepdaughters are reportedly reunited with their mother.
Flores had lost a lengthy child custody battle to Chavez, despite allegations of Chavez’s abusive practices from social workers, the statement noted.
“The system failed this little girl. The system failed her siblings. Help…didn’t come for this little girl until it was almost too late,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in part, while also launching a review into the systematic failures to discover the abuse sooner, per the statement.
Chavez scowled at the victims and rolled her eyes during the trial, ABC7 Los Angeles reported.
“She is evil incarnate. I can only hope she remains in prison for the rest of her life. She is totally unsuited for life among the free,” Judge Scott Steiner said of Chavez, per ABC7.