The 2021 killings of Christopher Fox III and Gihanna Fox ended with a life-without-parole sentence.
HENDERSON, Nev. — Nearly five years after two young children were drowned inside their home, their mother stood before a Clark County judge and received a life sentence with no chance of parole.
The hearing ended the criminal case against Jovan Trevino, 38, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the deaths of her children, 4-year-old Christopher Fox III and 1-year-old Gihanna Fox. The plea agreement took a possible death penalty trial off the table and left the court to impose life in prison without release. The case drew attention in Nevada because Trevino had worked as a family services assistant and because prosecutors said the children were killed in separate bathtubs inside the Henderson home.
The case began on July 19, 2021, with events that investigators later described in court records and hearings. Authorities said Trevino first brought Christopher into a bathroom and used a pair of glasses to get him into the bathtub, telling him they would help him see underwater. Prosecutors said she then held the 4-year-old down with her hand and leg while he was lying on his stomach. They said the pressure lasted about three to four minutes, long enough for the child to drown. The account became a central part of the state’s evidence because it showed what prosecutors described as a deliberate act, not a sudden accident.
After Christopher died, investigators said Trevino moved to a different bathroom, where Gihanna was drowned in a second tub. The children were 1 and 4, ages repeatedly noted in court because of how dependent they were on adult care. Officials have not described any evidence that either child could have escaped or called for help. The state built the case around the separation of the killings by room, by victim and by sequence. Prosecutors said those details mattered because Trevino had time to stop after the first drowning but instead continued to the second child.
What happened next shifted the investigation beyond Nevada. Authorities said Trevino wrote a suicide note and left for Arizona. She was later detained at a medical center in Bullhead City after reportedly telling hospital staff about the deaths. The disclosures led law enforcement back to the Henderson home and started the court case in Clark County. Trevino was charged with two murder counts, one for each child. As the case moved through the system, prosecutors planned to seek the death penalty, setting up a trial that would have focused on intent, mental state, family stress and the details of the drownings.
That trial never happened. In March 2026, Trevino pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and agreed to life without parole. The plea meant she admitted killing both children and accepted the most severe non-death sentence available in the case. It also spared relatives from a trial that would have replayed the details before a jury. The sentencing hearing that followed in May was not about whether Trevino committed the crimes. It was about placing the final judgment on record, hearing from the family and allowing the judge to speak directly about the harm done.
Trevino addressed Clark County District Judge Carli Kierny in an emotional statement. “On Monday, July 19, 2021, my babies’ precious, innocent lives were taken at the hands of their mommy,” she said. Trevino told the judge she had not been in her right mind and had been in the darkest place she had ever known. Her defense attorney, Ryan Bashor, argued that Trevino had been under extreme life stressors and was facing a collapsing relationship with the children’s father. The children’s father, Christopher Fox, had previously testified that Trevino spoke of suicide in the days before the drownings and said she could not leave the children without her.
Prosecutors answered with the facts of the killings. Chief Deputy District Attorney John Giordani called the crimes “unforgivable” and said they ranked among the most extreme cases of parental child killings he had seen in 15 years. The state focused less on Trevino’s later remorse and more on what each child experienced inside the home. Prosecutors said Christopher was coaxed into the tub before being held underwater, and Gihanna was killed after her brother. The sequence gave the sentencing hearing a grim structure, as lawyers and family members moved from the initial act to the second death and then to the years that followed.
Shawna Fox, the children’s grandmother, spoke for the family’s grief. She told Trevino she had “failed miserably” as a mother and said she hoped Trevino would see the children’s faces every time she closed her eyes. Her statement centered on the futures lost: birthdays, school years, family milestones and the ordinary life the children did not get to live. The courtroom record did not resolve every private question left for the family, including how relatives processed warning signs before the killings or how the children’s memories will be carried. It did, however, give the family a final public moment before sentencing.
Kierny said she could sense sadness from Trevino, but she did not treat sorrow as a reason for a lesser punishment. The judge told Trevino that she would likely think about the children for the rest of her life in prison. “That’s really the only tribute left that you can give them at this point,” Kierny said. Before the hearing ended, she added, “I will remember your case forever.” The words captured the final stage of a case that had moved from a Henderson home to an Arizona medical facility, then through years of Clark County court proceedings.
Trevino is now sentenced to life in a Nevada prison without parole. The guilty plea remains the controlling judgment, and no trial is scheduled. The deaths of Christopher Fox III and Gihanna Fox remain the core of the court record, with the sentence set to last for the rest of Trevino’s life.
Author note: Last updated June 15, 2026.