A woman who police say admitted killing three of her preteen children at the family’s West Hills home pleaded not guilty Friday to murder charges.
Angela Dawn Flores, now 40, is charged with three counts of murder stemming from the killings of her 12-year-old daughter, Natalie Flores, and two of her sons, Kevin Yanez, 10, and Nathan Yanez, 8, in May 2022.
The children each died from asphyxia and a “history of body compression,” according to records from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, officers were initially called at 11:45 p.m. May 7 to a home on Sale Avenue north of Victory Boulevard in connection with a report of a woman disturbing the peace. The caller told police a woman was in front of a home, thinking she lived there.
The woman, Flores, was contacted by police, who summoned Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics, who took her to a hospital, police said.
At 7:40 a.m. the next day, police responded to a 911 call reporting an assault with a deadly weapon suspect at a home on the 22500 block of Victory Boulevard, where officers found the three children unresponsive in the home. While officers were investigating, a neighbor informed them about the disturbance call from the previous night, police said. Officers went to the hospital and placed Flores under arrest.
During a subsequent investigation, “Flores admitted to killing her children” with the assistance of a 16-year-old suspect, who was also taken into custody according to police.
The Los Angeles Times and Fox11 cited law enforcement sources as saying in 2022 that the boy was Flores’ son, with the Times reporting that the teen allegedly helped to restrain one of the children who fought back against Flores.
The teenager was charged in 2022 with one count of murder, but no details on the status of the case against him were immediately available.
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Citing unnamed law enforcement sources, The Times reported in 2022 that Angela Flores claimed she believed the children were possessed by demons and repeatedly jumped on them in an effort to drive the demons away.
Flores has remained behind bars since her arrest May 8, 2022, according to jail records.
She is due back in a Van Nuys courtroom May 23. A date is scheduled to be set then for a hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to allow the case against her to move forward to trial.