A grieving mother whose daughter took her own life after her father groomed her revealed he exhibited a series of distressing red flags before the tragedy. 

Carolina Sandoval, the mother of Makayla Settles, 18, told the Daily Mail that the teen's father, Stephen Chavez, 41, allegedly showed concerning behavior six months before he plied the teen with alcohol and had sex with her in July 2025. 

Makayla died by suicide in December. This week Chavez, of Moorpark, California, was sentenced to just one year in county jail for incest and distributing alcohol to a minor, an outcome that sparked fierce backlash. 

The Ventura County District Attorney's Office said they could not charge Chavez with rape due to a 'lack of evidence', but Sandoval accused authorities of ignoring a slew of red flags and testing, including a rape kit and video testimony, before reaching that decision. 

Sandoval said Chavez only entered Makayla's life when she was nine and 'sold her a dream' of moving to California when she was 18 by funding her college, leading to an allegedly disturbing incident six months before when she visited him from North Carolina in December 2024. 

She said the trip took a dark turn as Chavez allegedly plied her daughter with alcohol during an alarming drinking session, and the teen then 'woke up in her underwear.' 

Sandoval said her daughter told her she confronted Chavez at the time and he claimed she 'passed out on the couch', so he carried her up to her bed, and told her, ‘you must have taken your clothes off when you slept.’

The mother said she was unaware of that incident until her daughter told her about the July 2025 attack, and she now believes Chavez had been grooming their daughter for months. 

'I think he was testing the boundaries at that point,' Sandoval said. 

Sandoval said Chavez only entered their daughter's life when she was aged nine, after which he told Makayla he was putting $500-a-month into a college fund for her. 

They had plans for Makayla to move to California when she turned 18, which Sandoval said 'sold her a dream' about a new life on the West Coast. 

She said the December 2024 trip was to prepare for the move to California, but after the alleged incident where Makayla woke up in her underwear, she kept the troubling episode to herself for months. 

In July 2025, Sandoval said she joined her daughter to help her move, but just two days later Chavez again plied Makayla with alcohol after a family gathering. 

Prosecutors said Chavez admitted to buying more alcohol for himself and Makayla as part of a plot to have sex with her at his home. 

Makayla died by suicide five months later in December 2025.

Sandoval said Makayla called her after the attack 'hysterically crying', and said they raced to hospital to get a rape kit to provide to the police. 

She said Makayla also made a video testimony about the incident and wrote about it in her diary, but prosecutors decided there was 'not enough evidence' to charge Chavez with anything more than incest and distributing alcohol to a minor. 

Chavez was allowed to avoid prison time in a plea deal and was sentenced to just a year in county jail, with a judge also declining to give the father a full three-year sentence because he had no prior criminal offenses.

Sandoval told the Daily Mail the result has infuriated and devastated her family, saying: 'It’s just ridiculous.’

She said she believes she provided a trove of damning evidence to prosecutors, as she questioned: 'I don't know what else you want.'  

Sandoval added that she confronted Chavez after the incident on a phone call, and while he claimed he 'blacked out' and had no memory of the incestuous episode, he was acting strangely as he was 'not surprised at all' by the horrific allegations.  

'Not once did he act shocked,' she alleged. 'A normal person would say, ‘no that’s crazy, what are you talking about.''

The cold call led police to arrest Chavez as he admitted to plying his underage daughter with alcohol, but prosecutors did not feel there was enough ‘evidence’ for anything further. He was later charged with incest. 

Prosecutors said they faced legal barriers to applying escalated charges in the case, including that Makayla's suicide meant there were no living witnesses. 

They decided that despite Sandoval providing a rape kit with Chavez's DNA, the burden of proof under California law was not met to charge him with rape due to a lack of other substantive evidence.  

After the July 2025 incident, Sandoval said her daughter returned to North Carolina ‘heartbroken and sad’, and she started sleeping with a nightlight on.

But she said there were no clear signs she was suicidal and believed she was moving on from the incident, before she tragically took her own life.

In a news release following Chavez's sentencing, the district attorney's office noted several members of Makayla's family gave harrowing victim impact statements, 'describing the lasting trauma caused by the defendant’s actions and the devastating loss of Makayla.'

Deputy District Attorney Tessa McCarty also condemned Chavez after his sentencing, saying he took advantage of his young daughter and betrayed her trust in a horrific way.

'Chavez exploited his position as a father, violated his daughter’s trust, supplied her with alcohol, and engaged in criminal conduct that forever altered the course of her life,' McCarty said.

'While we respect the court’s decision, we continue to believe a state prison sentence was warranted under the facts of this case,' she added.