VENTURA : Jury Asked to Find Woman Not Guilty

The third jury to hear the case of a farm worker who killed her newborn son was urged Thursday to find the woman not guilty by reason of insanity.

In her closing argument to Ventura County Superior Court jurors, Deputy Public Defender Jean L. Farley said she had satisfied the legal requirements for finding that Francisca Sanchez Jimenez was insane when she left the infant--known as Baby Boy Sanchez--to die in a portable toilet last year.

Under the law, Farley must show that Jimenez, 24, has a mental disorder, and that the disorder made her incapable of understanding the nature of her actions, or unable to distinguish right from wrong.

Virtually all of the half-dozen expert witnesses who testified at the monthlong trial said Jimenez has a mental problem, Farley said, though they disagreed on what it is. One said Jimenez is mentally retarded, another said she has schizophrenia, and another said she suffers dementia caused by brain damage.

Whatever the disorder, Farley said, it prevented Jimenez from understanding what was happening when she unexpectedly gave birth in the portable toilet.

“There was an inability to process information quickly enough for her to understand the nature and quality of her act,” Farley told the jury.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol J. Nelson will present her closing argument Tuesday in Judge Lawrence Storch’s courtroom. In an interview Thursday, Nelson said Jimenez might have learning disabilities or a personality disorder, but there is no evidence that she could not tell right from wrong.

As insanity cases go, Nelson said, “this isn’t even close.”

Jimenez’s first trial ended Feb. 14, when the jury said it was deadlocked on the murder charge. In June, a second jury convicted her of second-degree murder but deadlocked on the insanity plea.

If found insane, Jimenez will be sent to a mental institution until a judge determines that she has regained her sanity. If the jury decides that she was sane at the time, she faces a prison sentence of 15 years to life.