Incest dad avoids jail after daughter’s suicide as mum says ‘I handed her to the Devil’
Stephen Vincent Chavez, 41, admitted to sexually abusing his daughter Makayla, 18, at their home in California, and was sentenced to just one year in a local jail facility rather than state prison
Makayla took her own life(Image: GoFundMe)
A “devil” dad has avoided prison after admitting to having an incestuous relationship with his own daughter, who subsequently took her own life. Stephen Vincent Chavez, 41, confessed to sexually abusing Makayla Renee Settles, 18, who was living with him at his home in Moorpark, California.
Her heartbroken mother had told him: “My daughter is dead and you still just think about yourself. I’ll never forgive myself for handing her to the Devil.” Makayla ended her own life in December – five months after being sexually assaulted by her own father at a family gathering.
Chavez acknowledged exploiting a position of trust and was handed a single year in jail along with three years of felony probation after DNA testing revealed his sickening crime.
He will serve the next 12 months in a local detention facility, not the vast, heavily fortified prison complexes. Prosecutors depicted the case as a grave betrayal of parental responsibility.
However, an open plea agreement presented directly to Ventura County Superior Court Judge Dusty Kawai circumvented the prosecution’s sentencing recommendation.
Under California law, felony incest carries a maximum sentence of three years. Kawai stated he could not legally impose that maximum term because the defendant had no prior criminal history.
Several members of Makayla’s family spoke to the court and delivered emotional victim impact statements describing the enduring trauma caused by her father’s actions and the heartbreaking loss following her death, ABC7 reported.
Deputy District Attorney Tessa McCarty said Chavez “exploited his position as a father, violated his daughter’s trust, supplied her with alcohol, and engaged in criminal conduct that forever altered the course of her life.
“While we respect the court’s decision, we continue to believe a state prison sentence was warranted under the facts of this case,” she added.
Prosecutors reportedly spent months examining if additional charges – including rape – could be legally pursued.
In the end, they concluded that incest was the only felony charge that was supported by the law, facts and admissible evidence.
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