Man and woman sentenced in separate child killing cases

A 25-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman were each sentenced Wednesday in separate and unrelated cases of killing a young child, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Lataz Gray was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison for fatally stabbing a 2-year-old girl to death after the child tried to protect her pregnant mother during a 2016 fight in South Los Angeles, prosecutors said.

Gray pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in the girl’s death as well as attempted murder for attacking her mother, prosecutors said.

Gray began stabbing his 22-year-old girlfriend on May 2, 2016, when her 2-year-old daughter, Maliaya Tademy, came from a different room and tried to protect her mother, prosecutors said.

Gray’s father notified investigators about his son, who had gone to the hospital for treatment of cuts to his hands, police said at the time. At some point, Gray was in touch with his father, who tried to persuade him to turn himself in, police said.

Gray fled the scene and was arrested the next day by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Calixta Landa, 24, was sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison Wednesday in a separate incident in South Los Angeles. Landa pleaded no contest to one count of second-degree murder in January in the death of her baby, prosecutors said.

Family members reported seeing her 19-day-old baby, Sebastian, limp and pale in his bassinet on July 14, 2016, prosecutors said. The baby boy died two days later at a local hospital from brain and neck injuries inflicted by Landa, prosecutors said.

Landa told investigators that she hit her baby, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. John Corina told The Times in 2016.

“She admitted to being frustrated,” he said. “The baby was crying. She got frustrated and then she got physical with the baby, and the baby ended up with blunt force trauma.”

javier.panzar@latimes.com

Twitter: @jpanzar