A mother and a man housing her face decades in prison after feeding her 11-week-old son a bottle containing methamphetamine.

Jefferson County District Judge Tamara Russell sentenced both 35-year-old Alexander Avila and 33-year-old Lisa Johnson on Thursday and Friday, respectively, in connection to the 2024 death of infant Ezra Johnson.

Johnson, the mother, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after accepting a plea deal for a count of child abuse resulting in death.

Avila also accepted a plea for a count of child abuse resulting in death and accessory to a crime, resulting in 18 years.

Both faced counts of first-degree murder, but they were dropped in the plea agreements.

The court room was nearly empty — a detail both the judge and attorneys considered harrowing.

While Lakewood Police Department officers showed up in support of the child, no additional family was found. Russell added that she saw a packed courthouse during a dog abuse death case, but not this one.

“I get that this case comes from generations of drug addiction and abuse. We do hope that each generation will take that opportunity to break that cycle,” Russell said to Avila on Thursday. “The cycle wasn’t broken.”

Lakewood police responded to a call of an unresponsive baby at a home in the 500 block of Vance Street on July 26, 2024. Eleven-week-old Ezra was found and pronounced deceased at the scene by paramedics.

It was later determined that there was 53,000 ng/mL of methamphetamine detected in Ezra’s blood.

“The amount of methamphetamine in this child’s system was astronomical — unheard of,” Tyra Forbes, chief deputy district attorney for the First Judicial District, told the judge. “The forensic pathologist was so shocked by the number that he had it retested… Even in toxicity in adults, 16,000 nanograms was the highest he could find.”

While the judge never ruled to release the arrest affidavits to the public, despite a motion filed by the district attorney’s office in December 2024, the people’s statements at the sentencing hearings painted a picture of an abhorrent living condition for the group.

Neither defendant has admitted to giving the baby the bottle directly, but both admitted to using the baby bottles as containers for drugs.

Avila was also a drug dealer, being on probation for a prior drug offense at the time of Ezra’s death. He also had three other drug felonies on his record.

The defendant appeared in jail on Thursday, dabbing tears from his eyes as his public defender, Justin Conley, discussed his tumultuous childhood involving drug withdrawal since birth, abusive parents and a stint of sobriety between 2015 and 2019.

“Mr. Avila did care,” Conley said. “He was not the cause of Ezra’s death, but he did contribute to those circumstances.”

Johnson’s defense circled the same concepts — lifelong patterns of drug abuse and poverty.

The mother had three other children, all taken away due to her addiction. She still had custody of Ezra at the time.

She was homeless and Avila offered her a place to stay, even though Avila knew the home was not safe for a child. He just wanted to help, according to his attorneys.

“(Denver Human Services) was involved, a homeless navigator was involved, and she had a woman who already adopted her third child that would have taken Ezra, had she just asked,” Forbes said, implying that Johnson chose to live in the rough conditions under Avila.

The defense argued that the processes of helping homeless people get off the street takes time, with Johnson just seeking a place to stay.

Both defendants addressed the court, each expressing their sorrow for Ezra’s death and questioning why they didn’t work harder to break their addictions beforehand.

“Being a mom is one of the most important jobs, and not every child deserves the mom they get,” Russell said to the mother Friday. “It was up to you to make that decision. Your big mistake wasn’t leaving him with Avila; it was living there, doing drugs, hanging out with people using drugs and not realizing this was going to come to a head.”