Tragic toddler, Leland Valdez died at just 3-years-old in 2011, two days after being rushed to hospital unconscious.
The boy's mother, Tabitha Van Holtz and her then boyfriend, Stevan Gallegos initially claimed that the child had fallen from a chair. However, a post-mortem examination showed that he had been severely beaten and suffered injuries all over his body.
The New Mexico courts sentenced Gallegos to 21 years in prison, while Van Holtz took a plea bargain and received a nine-year sentence with two years served as probation for a charge of child abandonment resulting in death.
"Our system is weak," Leland's devastated father, Andrew Valdez told
KRQE News.
"My son's dead, I don't know how that's not a serious crime."
"I can go to bed and wake up in the morning and still feel like it's yesterday," says the distraught father in an interview with his wife Angela by his side. "I feel like she has gotten off scot-free."
The couple recently found out through Facebook posts that Tabitha Van Holtz, who was sentenced in 2014 for her role in the death by beating of her three-year-old son is already out of prison.
"He never got to see his first day of kindergarten, he never got to join football; he would've been nine this September," added Angela.
"On a daily basis, it's hard for me," says Valdez.
The Santa Fe District Attorney stated that when Van Holtz was sentenced, she already had "credit time" served and with good behaviour, was eligible for release about a year and a half after sentencing.
Main image via
KRQE News
