Mother Who Left Baby in Hot Car Sentenced

A judge Thursday sentenced a La Habra woman to 15 years to life in prison for the murder of her infant son, who died when she left him in a car last summer while she slept in an air-conditioned Claremont motel.

Kimberly Sue Fudge, 30, clad in a light blue county jail uniform, remained stone-faced as Pomona Superior Court Judge Charles E. Horan handed down the mandatory sentence.

Her bearing was in stark contrast to her demeanor in November, when she broke down in tears after jurors took less than a day to declare her guilty of second-degree murder.

Outside the courtroom Thursday, the prosecutor said the case will serve as a tragic warning about the dangers of leaving a child alone in a vehicle.

“I hope this sends a message to parents everywhere: Please don’t let children dehydrate and die in a car,” said Carol J. Najera, assistant head deputy district attorney in the Pomona office.

Before the judge pronounced the sentence, Fudge’s attorney, James Blatt, asked the court to understand that, more than anyone else, his client feels the loss of her 5-month-old son, Cailin Cutillo.

“Miss Fudge has deep regret and sadness for the loss of her child. But she did not intend for this tragic event to occur,” Blatt said.

Police testified at Fudge’s trial that she confessed to leaving her son strapped in his car seat--with the doors locked and the windows rolled up--from 7:30 a.m. to about 1 p.m. in the parking lot of the Howard Johnson’s motel on Indian Hill Boulevard.

During that time, the outside temperature rose to the mid-90s; officers measured the temperature inside the 1991 Buick at 118 degrees. The car’s back windows were darkly tinted, so passersby did not see the baby inside, police said.

Claremont Police Det. Lawrence Horowitz testified at trial that Fudge said she went to the motel to make peace after an argument with her boyfriend, Dylan Cutillo, the baby’s father. She ended up falling asleep until the early afternoon, Horowitz said.

A hysterical Fudge called police about 1:50 p.m., and paramedics found the lifeless child in the motel room when they arrived. Cutillo was not charged, because he was unaware that the baby was in the car.

Tests at the time of her arrest showed that Fudge had high concentrations of methamphetamine and amphetamine in her system, police testified.

On Thursday, Blatt said he will appeal the conviction because he thinks the jury should have had the option of convicting his client of involuntary manslaughter, which carries a lighter prison term. Horan denied that option during the trial.

Prosecutor Najera, however, said the murder conviction was supported by evidence of Fudge’s malice and negligence. Najera said trial testimony established that Fudge had left her children unattended in vehicles before.

In particular, Fudge admitted to police that from midnight to 5 a.m. the day of her son’s death, she left the boy in the car outside an all-night Super Kmart in La Habra while she shopped for lingerie.

“Given those facts,” Najera said, “it was really a just verdict and sentence.”