LA HABRA, Calif. — A California woman accused of tossing her infant son from the fourth story of a hospital parking structure was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder and assault on a child causing death.
Jurors must now decide if 41-year-old Sonia Hermosillo of La Habra was sane when she threw 7-month-old Noe Medina Jr. to his death from the Children’s Hospital of Orange County parking deck in August 2011, The Orange County Register reported.
And because Hermosillo pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the charges, the same jury will deliberate the pending “sanity” phase of the trial, the newspaper reported.
According to KTLA, Baby Noe was born with a congenital condition that left his neck twisted to one side, as well as plagiocephaly, a structural deformity often referred to as flat-head syndrome that can develop when a baby spends too much time lying on his or her back.
Prosecutors argued that at around 6:20 p.m. Aug. 22, 2011, Hermosillo removed Baby Noe’s helmet, pushed him from the parking structure, walked into the hospital, validated her parking and drove away, the TV station reported.
The child died at the University of California Irvine Medical Center two days later.
Hermosillo’s husband, Noe Medina, told police at the time that his wife had been recently hospitalized for depression and was not allowed to be alone with the baby. The couple has two older daughters, KTLA reported.
According to the Register, Hermosillo told detectives during an interview that she felt “hate, resentment and anger” toward the baby “because he’s sick.”
Meanwhile, defense attorney Jacqueline Goodman argued that Hermosillo was delusional and suffering from a psychotic break during the time of the murder and her subsequent interrogation, the newspaper reported.
“This is not a sick baby. It is a baby that gestated too long and needed some physical therapy,” Goodman told jurors on Wednesday. “He was getting better.”
If Hermosillo is found sane she faces 25-years-to-life in prison.
©2021 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/LH3JSJEF3VBLRJLJQESEAG34AM.png)
