Main: Jovan Trevino in court for her sentencing hearing (KLAS). Inset, top to bottom: Gihanna Fox and Christopher Fox III (GoFundMe).
A former child welfare employee in Nevada has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the tragic drowning of her two young children, a 4-year-old boy and his 1-year-old sister, in separate bathtubs.
On Tuesday, Clark County District Judge Carli Kierny sentenced 38-year-old Jovan Trevino to life without parole for the 2021 murders of Christopher Fox III and Gihanna Fox. This decision follows Trevino’s guilty plea to two counts of first-degree murder as part of a deal with prosecutors, thereby avoiding the death penalty, according to court records.
Trevino’s guilty plea eliminated the possibility of a death row sentence, marking the end of a case that prosecutors described as one of the most disturbing incidents of parental homicide in recent history.
“On Monday, July 19, 2021, my babies’ precious, innocent lives were taken at the hands of their mommy,” Trevino emotionally confessed to Judge Kierny, as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I truly was not in the right mind, in the darkest place that I’ve ever been, which is evident by the horrific crime that I did commit.”
The harrowing details of these crimes, previously highlighted by Law&Crime, continue to resonate with those who followed the case.
The details of those crimes, previously reported by Law&Crime, are chilling.
On the day of the murders, Trevino — who worked as a family services assistant for the Clark County Department of Family Services — tricked her 4-year-old son into the bathtub by giving him a pair of glasses and telling him he could use them to see better underwater.
Once he was on his stomach, Trevino used her leg and hand to hold the boy underwater for approximately three to four minutes until he drowned. She then moved to the master bedroom and forced her 1-year-old daughter underwater in a second tub.
After the killings, Trevino penned a suicide note and fled to Arizona, where she was eventually taken into custody at a medical center in Bullhead City after allegedly telling the hospital staff about the murders.
During the sentencing hearing, Chief Deputy District Attorney John Giordani called Trevino’s actions “unforgivable,” noting it was the most extreme case of its kind he had seen in 15 years.
The children’s grandmother, Shawna Fox, reportedly told the court that Trevino had “failed miserably” as a mother.
“I hope you see their little faces every time you close your eyes and I hope you never forgive yourself for stealing their futures,” she reportedly said in court.
Trevino’s defense attorney, Ryan Bashor, asserted that his client was facing “extreme life stressors” and a crumbling relationship with the children’s father at the time of the murders. The children’s father, Christopher Fox, had previously testified that Trevino expressed suicidal thoughts just days before the drownings, stating she felt she “couldn’t leave the kids here without her being there with them.”
Kierny told Trevino that while she could sense the defendant’s sadness, the life sentence was the only appropriate resolution.
“I know that as you live out the rest of your life in a jail cell, you’ll probably see them at night, you’ll think of them,” the judge said. “That’s really the only tribute left that you can give them at this point.”
Before ending, the judge also said she would not soon forget Trevino’s crime.
“I will remember your case forever,” she said.
