Makayla Renee Settles sought a fresh start when she relocated to California to live with her biological father, Stephen Chavez. However, the anticipated reunion quickly took a tragic turn just two days after her arrival.
Prosecutors report that Chavez provided his 18-year-old daughter with alcohol and engaged in sexual activities with her. Tragically, months later, Settles took her own life.
Chavez has now entered a guilty plea to felony incest and a misdemeanor for furnishing alcohol to a minor, as confirmed by a statement released on May 18 by the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.
The prosecutors emphasized, “He also admitted that he exploited a position of trust and acknowledged the victim’s particular vulnerability.”
Chavez faces a potential maximum prison sentence of three years—a duration that her family argues is insufficient given the gravity of the crime.
As Settles’ mom Carolina Sandoval told Fox 11, “It just feels like, you know, my daughter’s life is only worth three years.”
What Was Stephen Chavez Accused Of?
Prosecutors said Settles moved in with her biological father at his Moorpark home in July 2025. She was planning to attend college and begin a new chapter across the country from her North Carolina home, Fox 11 reported.
“After a day of drinking at a family gathering, Chavez purchased additional alcohol for him and his daughter to drink at home,” prosecutors said. “Chavez then engaged in sexual intercourse with her.”
The teen died by suicide in December 2025.
“He changed my daughter forever,” Sandoval told Fox 11, adding she had been the one to call the police to report the crime. “The day it happened, he called me from prison, and I told him, I said, ‘You killed my daughter, I don’t know who I’m bringing back,’ and here we are.”
Makayla Settles’ Family Hoped For Harsher Charges for Stephen Chavez
In the wake of her death, Settles’ family has been determined to get justice, starting a social media campaign and speaking out publicly.
Sandoval described her daughter as a “sweet girl” who dreamed of becoming an architect or opening her own nail salon.
“She was a kid,” she told Fox 11. “She was a child that you know got taken advantage of, and she just didn’t deserve that. You know, she deserved to be here and to get to meet new people.”
The family believes that Chavez should have faced harsher charges, noting the maximum he’ll receive is three years in prison and 20 years registering as a sex offender.
”He got her drunk… she was intoxicated,” Sandoval added. “She was taken advantage of physically and mentally. So if that’s not rape, I really don’t what is.”
However, the prosecutors office said it performed an analysis of the forensic evidence, medical records and electronic evidence in the case and concluded that the incest charge fit the evidence.
“After doing so and convening a team of the office’s top sexual assault prosecutors to review the findings,” they noted in the statement, “the District Attorney’s Office is confident that this case was properly charged based upon the law, facts and evidence presented.”
Deputy District Attorney Tessa McCarty added that prosecutors plan to seek the maximum sentence of three years in state prison.
“Makayla placed her trust and well-being in the defendant’s care, moving from North Carolina to California to start a new life with him,” she said. “The defendant violated this trust and shattered the father-daughter relationship in an unimaginable way, conduct for which prison is the only appropriate sentence.”
Chavez is expected to be sentenced at 9 a.m. on June 23 at the Ventura County Superior Court and was remanded into custody after the guilty plea.