Wife, at Husband’s Trial, Says She Killed Baby

A Fullerton woman, whose statements to police led to her husband’s arrest on murder charges in the death of a 13-month-old boy she was baby-sitting, testified in tears Wednesday that she killed the child, and that her husband was not even in the house at the time.

Linda Garritson, 30, also charged with murder in the Feb. 22, 1979, death of young Scott Cleveland, told jurors in Orange County Superior Court she accidentally dropped the boy on the family-room steps of their former Anaheim home while her husband, Michael, 33, was out jogging with a friend.

The admission occurred when Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Avdeef asked Linda Garritson if she would “do anything” to help her husband.

“I know what you’re trying to say. I’m not up here lying for him!” she shouted through her tears. “My husband wasn’t even in the house. I’m the one who killed that child, but it was an accident!”

The Cleveland boy’s death was initially ruled an accident, but the case was reopened in 1982 by Anaheim police after they received new information. Michael Garritson was charged with murder last August after his wife told police that she was out of the room when the child was injured.

Linda Garritson was charged with murder a few weeks after that, but prosecutors believed it was the husband, not the wife, who was directly responsible for the boy’s death. She is scheduled to be tried later.

But Linda Garritson said Wednesday that all of her earlier statements to police about what happened were lies.

Michael Garritson squeezed his eyes shut as his wife, who is seven months pregnant, emotionally described how the child died. She testified that the boy climbed over the top of her shoulder while she was going up the steps. She grabbed his ankle to keep him from falling, she said, but the boy’s head struck one of the steps.

She said she put the baby on the third and top step and then ran to the refrigerator to get ice for the injury. When she got back, the child had fallen to the bottom of the steps.

The Garritsons had separated briefly after the child’s death, but are now back together. Michael Garritson is free on $50,000 bail; his wife is free without bail.

The prosecution claims that Linda Garritson, who initially told police that the baby had fallen down the steps by himself, is now trying to cover up for her husband. Avdeef has requested Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald to throw out all of Linda Garritson’s testimony. She is scheduled to retake the stand today.

But attorneys for both Garritsons now say that she lied to police last summer because she was angry with her husband for having an affair with another woman.

“She thought she could go back and straighten it all out, but by then the police weren’t interested,” said her attorney, Charles Margines.