A California mother is calling for legislative reform of the state's sex crime laws, urging Governor Gavin Newsom to take action following the death of her teenage daughter. Makayla Rene Settles died by suicide in November 2025, five months after her biological father, Stephen Vincent Chavez, sexually assaulted her. Chavez was recently sentenced to one year in county jail and three years of probation after pleading guilty to felony incest and furnishing alcohol to a minor.
Carolina Sandoval, Makayla's mother, expressed her dismay at the sentence, telling The California Post that it does not represent justice for her daughter. "It is ridiculous. It’s not justice," Sandoval stated. "I’m going to fight to change these laws because no other family should have to go through what we’ve gone through."
Settles, 18, had moved from North Carolina to Moorpark, California, to live with her father. According to Sandoval, Chavez plied her daughter with alcohol in July 2025 before the assault occurred. Prosecutors stated that the evidence supported an incest conviction but not a rape charge, as Chavez maintained the encounter was consensual. Sandoval relayed that prosecutors informed her that a rape charge could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, even with her daughter's multiple statements to detectives, including a recorded video interview and an audio recording of her speaking to a cousin about the incident. "But once she died, they told me her evidence was no longer valid," Sandoval said.
The Ventura County District Attorney's Office sought the maximum sentence of three years in state prison, but the judge imposed the county jail term. Erin Meister, chief deputy district attorney in Ventura County, stated that senior prosecutors and legal experts from another county reviewed the evidence and concluded that incest was the only felony charge supported by the facts and law. Chavez is required to register as a sex offender for 20 years.
Other victims of sexual abuse present at Chavez's court hearings reportedly criticized Newsom's approach to prosecuting sex crimes, with some suggesting that the outcome for Makayla validates their anger. Sandoval echoed this sentiment, stating, "It’s exactly why women don’t speak out. They relive everything over and over only for the end result to come out like this. It’s a slap in the face."
Neama Rahmani, former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, commented that Chavez "unjustly benefited from his daughter’s tragic suicide" because her testimony was unavailable. "Without her testifying and establishing lack of consent, the District Attorney didn’t think it could prove rape. It is a miscarriage of justice and sends the wrong message to other perpetrators of incest and sex abuse."
In response to the criticism, a spokesperson for Governor Newsom's office stated that the suggestion he does not take sexual assault seriously is false. The statement highlighted that the administration has consistently signed legislation, invested in survivor services, strengthened victim protections, and expanded resources to prevent sexual violence. However, the governor's office noted it could not comment on decisions made by local law enforcement or courts. Sandoval described California's sex abuse and rape laws as a "huge gray area" and feels they "cater to the predator more than the victim."