Woman Convicted of Killing Baby in Toilet

A farm worker was found guilty of second-degree murder Friday for the death last July of her newborn infant son in a portable toilet in a Saticoy onion field.

But the Ventura County Superior Court jury found Francisca Maria Sanchez Jimenez not guilty of attempting to murder her firstborn son, who was rescued from a flush toilet at her Oxnard residence in May, 1990.

With her second-degree murder conviction, Jimenez, 23, now must face another jury trial to determine whether she is innocent by reason of insanity.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol J. Nelson told jurors it was more than coincidence that in each case the umbilical cords were broken and the infants ended up in toilets. The only logical explanation, she said, was that Jimenez wanted to get rid of the babies.

But defense psychologists described Jimenez as an illiterate woman from a Mexican village who was never taught the basics of human reproduction.

“I think what we have here is a compromise,� Public Defender Jean L. Farley said, referring to the jury’s decision to reject a first-degree murder charge. “I still think she’s innocent.�

The five-week trial was the second one for Jimenez, who grew up in a rural village about 40 miles from Mexico City. Her first murder trial resulted in a mistrial in February when one juror held out for acquittal.

Her son’s death, on July 28, 1991, evoked an outpouring of public sympathy.

Immediately after the infant, called Baby Boy Sanchez, was buried at Ivy Lawn Cemetery in Ventura, members of the public, who never knew Jimenez, placed items on the baby’s grave symbolizing their grief. Included were a night light, a cassette of lullaby songs, flowers and stuffed animals.

One person even paid for a headstone.

“A lot of people felt really bad that something like that would happen,� said Pamela Amrine, who works in the cemetery office.

On Friday, before the verdict became known, someone placed carnations on the grave, she said.

Nelson said Friday’s jury decision was “a reasonable verdict and I don’t have any problem with it at all.�

But Farley said she was “very disappointed.�

Jimenez heard the jury verdict through an interpreter. She showed no emotion.

A second-degree murder conviction, which means the crime was intentional but there was no premeditation, carries a penalty of 15 years to life in prison. Parole would be possible after 7 1/2 years behind bars.

Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch was expected to set a date Monday for the sanity trial, which is expected to last only a few days.

Nelson said that if Jimenez is found not guilty by reason of insanity, she could be incarcerated in a mental institution. Then, she told reporters, “after six months, she could petition to get out.�

Based on the evidence, Nelson said, “I don’t think there’s any question� that Jimenez was sane and knew what she was doing.

But Farley has argued that the prosecutor never proved that Jimenez was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

In the instance of the first baby, Farley said that her client was overcome with fatigue and was unable to rescue the infant before her roommates rushed in and plucked him from a toilet bowl.

Nelson cited testimony that when the roommates entered, Jimenez was flushing the toilet with one hand and using the other to push the infant headfirst down the toilet.

Farley said the second baby came so rapidly that Jimenez did not realize that she had given birth or that the infant had fallen into the portable field toilet. She disputed the county medical examiner’s testimony that the baby apparently breathed for as much as 60 seconds and probably cried before dying.

Nelson said that after having the first baby in May, 1990, Jimenez must have known what was happening to her body on July 28, 1991, when she walked into the portable toilet in the onion field.

Nelson also challenged Jimenez’s claim that the umbilical cord simply broke during both deliveries. She said the county medical examiner had testified to the unlikelihood of such a tear.