A Las Vegas mother has been sentenced to life imprisonment after admitting to the tragic drowning of her two young children in 2021. The ruling was handed down by a federal judge on Tuesday.
Jovan Trevino, aged 38, expressed remorse during her court appearance, stating she was not in her “right mind” when she committed the murders. In July 2021, the Henderson, Nevada, police discovered the bodies of Trevino’s children, Christopher Fox, 4, and Gihanna Fox, 1, lifeless in their family home.
“On Monday, July 19, 2021, my babies’ precious, innocent lives were taken by their mommy,” Trevino told District Judge Carli Kierny, as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“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,” she added.
Following her guilty plea to two counts of first-degree murder—one for each child—Trevino was seen blowing a kiss to her brothers as she was escorted out of the courtroom at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (Photo by Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
While handing down the life sentence, Kierny had a message for Trevino.
“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,” she said. “That’s really the only tribute left that you can give them at this point.”Â
Kierny added, “I will remember your case forever.”
A sign for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department outside the headquarters in Las Vegas Oct. 4, 2025. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney John Giordani called the murders an “unforgivable crime.”
“This is one of the most extreme cases of matricide that I’ve seen in my 15-year career,” Giordani said during proceedings.
Police said Trevino told officers she had drugged herself with a sleeping aid and alcohol before carrying out the murders.
The children’s father, Christopher Fox, and their grandmother, Shawna Fox, also testified before the court prior to Trevino’s sentencing.
“The cruelty of what you did by leaving them floating dead in their bathtubs for their daddy to find them when he got home from work is unthinkable,” Shawna Fox said.
“IÂ just want the courts to remember my kids as joyous loving children. Nothing else,” Christopher Fox said.