Four Defendants Sentenced in 2023 Hilltop Child Death and Drug Trafficking Case

Posted on 3/3/2026

Defendant: Ema Lilia Loza De Leon, Jose Garcia-Huerta, Lezly Avila, Jovany Raudel-Avila

Four co-defendants who pled guilty to charges related to the 2023 death of a 13-year-old boy and drug trafficking have all been sentenced.
 
Today, Judge Jaiza Paige sentenced Jose Garcia-Huerta, 26, to 8 years in prison. He pled guilty to three counts of Trafficking in a Fentanyl-related Compound and Engaging in a Pattern of Corrupt Activity. Garcia-Huerta was charged in connection to a scheme run by Ema Loza De Leon, 58.
 
Back in December 2025, Loza De Leon, pled guilty to Involuntary Manslaughter, Endangering Children, two counts of Engaging in a Pattern of Corrupt Activity, three counts of Trafficking Cocaine and seven counts of Trafficking Fentanyl, including a Major Drug Offender specification.  She was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
 
Last month, Lezly Avila, 22, pled guilty to Possession of Cocaine and Possession of Fentanyl. Judge Paige sentenced her to 7 years and 11 months in prison.
 
In November 2025, Jovany Raudel-Avila, then 18, received a 12-year suspended sentence with probation.

Case Background
On Sept. 5, 2023, first responders received a call from North Warren Avenue in North Hilltop regarding an unresponsive child. Paramedics declared the child, Loza De Leon’s 13-year-old grandson, Ulises Loza-Garibay, dead upon their arrival. An autopsy later revealed fentanyl and cocaine as the cause of death for the child, for whom Loza De Leon had been serving legal parental responsibilities.
 
After securing a search warrant, police discovered narcotics in various locations throughout the home, both prepared for shipment and near where the body of the child was found. Police also recovered two firearms and Loza De Leon’s phone, which contained messages revealing that she was directing members of her family to engage in criminal drug trafficking activity.
 
After securing a subsequent warrant at a new residence on Dering Avenue in Greenhill Acres on Jan. 5, 2025, police discovered more narcotics and another phone containing evidence that Loza De Leon had directed members of her family to engage in additional criminal drug trafficking activity.
  
In total, Garcia-Huerta and his codefendants were responsible for thousands of grams of narcotics, including fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin recovered from their residences.

When Columbus Police arrived to serve arrest warrants on the indictment pertaining to the drug trafficking operation, they observed additional indications of ongoing drug trafficking, leading to the execution of a third search warrant in early August 2024, and, ultimately, a second indictment on more drug charges.
 
Garcia-Huerta’s pleas and sentence today also addressed an unrelated investigation where he sold fentanyl to an undercover detective from the Franklin County Sherriff’s Office Special Investigations Unit in 2021.