Jovan Trevino pleaded guilty to two first-degree murder counts in the deaths of her son and daughter.

HENDERSON, Nev. — A Nevada woman who admitted drowning her two young children in separate bathtubs was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole, closing a murder case that began inside a Henderson home in July 2021.

Clark County District Judge Carli Kierny imposed the sentence on Jovan Trevino, 38, after Trevino pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 4-year-old Christopher Fox III and 1-year-old Gihanna Fox. The plea agreement removed the possibility of a death penalty trial and fixed the punishment at life in a state prison with no chance of release. Prosecutors said the case stood out because of the ages of the children, the separate drownings and Trevino’s former work as a family services assistant.

The sentence came after a hearing where Trevino apologized in open court and described the killings as the result of the darkest point in her life. “On Monday, July 19, 2021, my babies’ precious, innocent lives were taken at the hands of their mommy,” Trevino told Kierny. “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 apology did not change the outcome. Kierny said she could see sadness in Trevino, but the judge said the crime left no fitting sentence short of life without parole.

Authorities said the children were killed inside the family’s Henderson home after Trevino led her son into a bathroom and got him into a bathtub. Prosecutors said she gave Christopher a pair of glasses and told him he could use them to see underwater. Once he was lying on his stomach in the tub, Trevino held him under the water with her hand and leg for about three to four minutes until he drowned, officials said. She then went to another bathroom in the home and drowned Gihanna in a separate tub. The killings happened one after the other, according to accounts presented in court and in earlier filings.

After the children died, investigators said Trevino wrote a suicide note and left Nevada. She was later taken into custody in Bullhead City, Arizona, after staff at a medical facility were told about the deaths. The case then moved through Clark County courts for nearly five years. Trevino had once faced a possible death sentence, but that changed when she entered the guilty plea. By admitting to both killings, she avoided a capital trial while accepting a sentence that ensures she will never be released from prison. The court records show the sentence applies to the 2021 slayings of both children.

Chief Deputy District Attorney John Giordani used the sentencing hearing to describe the crimes as “unforgivable.” He said the case was among the most extreme of its kind he had seen in his 15-year career. Prosecutors emphasized that Trevino did not kill the children in a single act, but in separate rooms, with time between the deaths. They said that sequence showed the deliberate nature of the crimes. Defense attorney Ryan Bashor pointed to Trevino’s mental state and personal turmoil at the time, including what he described as extreme life stressors and a failing relationship with the children’s father.

The children’s father, Christopher Fox, had previously testified that Trevino expressed suicidal thoughts before the drownings. According to that testimony, she said she felt she could not leave the children behind without her. The defense cited those statements as part of the context for Trevino’s mental and emotional condition in the days before the killings. The court did not treat those details as a legal excuse. Kierny made clear that the sentence was based on the deaths of two children who had no ability to protect themselves and whose lives ended inside their own home.

Family members also spoke about the loss in direct terms. Shawna Fox, the children’s grandmother, told the court that Trevino had “failed miserably” as a mother. She said she hoped Trevino would see the children’s faces whenever she closed her eyes and never forgive herself for taking away their futures. The statement gave the hearing a second focus beyond punishment, showing the damage left for relatives who had followed the case since 2021. The children were remembered in court by name, not only as victims in a case file but as a son, daughter, grandchildren and siblings in a broken family.

Kierny addressed Trevino from the bench before the sentence became final. “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.” The judge then added a closing line that marked the tone of the hearing: “I will remember your case forever.” Those words came after years of court proceedings, charging decisions, plea negotiations and statements from both sides about intent, remorse, mental health and punishment.

The case is now closed at the trial court level, with Trevino ordered to serve life without parole in a Nevada state correctional facility. The next formal steps are administrative, including transfer and prison intake, rather than a trial or sentencing date. The sentence leaves no parole hearing ahead.

Author note: Last updated June 15, 2026.