A.V. MAN PLEADS NO CONTEST IN CHILD'S BEATING DEATH.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A 21-year-old Lancaster man accused of beating to death his girlfriend's 4-year-old daughter on Father's Day weekend pleaded no contest Thursday to second-degree murder.

Gerardo H. Romero faces 15 years to life in prison when he is sentenced in November in the death of little Jasmine Avalos.

The girl's mother, Raven Rayleen Gibbons, pleaded no contest to child endangerment and admitted an allegation that she permitted Jasmine to suffer injury that resulted in death.

Gibbons will be sentenced to eight years in prison but that sentence will be suspended, and she will be ordered to serve a year in jail, of which she must serve 270 days, Deputy District Attorney Flora Podratz said.

``The terms and conditions of probation include a one-year child abuse treatment program,'' Podratz said. ``She will not be allowed to have unsupervised visitation with her other child until she has completed the one-year program.''

Podratz said she was told by Gibbons' attorney that the 2-year-old child, who was initially placed in protective custody, is now with Gibbons' parents and that Gibbons has given up parental rights.

Prosecutors were waiting to see if coroner and neuropathology reports would show evidence to support an allegation of murder by torture against Romero in Jasmine's death.

Such an allegation would have subjected Romero, if convicted of it, to life in prison without the possibility of parole or death.

The reports contained no such evidence but did show evidence of prior abuse, Podratz said.

``The fact that there was prior abuse would make it difficult to show that his intention was to kill her on this occasion as opposed to abusing her as he had in the past,'' Podratz said.

Podratz added that Romero's defense attorney had earlier offered to have his client plead to second-degree murder as Romero was young and had no prior record.

Sheriff's deputies were sent to the couple's Lancaster home in the 300 block of East Lingard Street the morning of June 19 after Gibbons called 911. The girl was taken to Antelope Valley Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Podratz had said previously that Gibbons told investigators that before making the 911 call, she had called a hospital to ask some questions, ``presumably because of the condition her daughter was in.''

The 911 call was placed at 8:37 a.m. on June 19, and Podratz said the hospital call was made sometime between then and the previous night. The beating was alleged to have occurred between June 18 and 19, Podratz said.

Gibbons and Romero were arrested on June 19.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com