Judge Drops Charge in Boy’s Death

A judge threw out a manslaughter charge Friday against a former Orange County day care center operator, closing the books on a long-running case focusing on the 1995 death of a 6-month-old boy in the defendant’s care.

The ruling by Judge Richard L. Weatherspoon follows two hung juries in the case. Mary Suzanne Orlina was accused of killing the infant April 21, 1995, at her home day care center in Aliso Viejo.

The boy, Kodi Vedder, was breathing but unconscious when his mother picked him up after work that afternoon. Orlina said the boy had fallen off a sofa and was sleeping. His parents later took him to a hospital, where he died.

After a 17-month investigation, sheriff’s deputies arrested Orlina. The child abuse case was based largely on pathologists’ conclusions that Kodi had died from severe brain trauma unlikely to have been caused by a short fall onto a carpeted floor.

In 1998, a jury acquitted Orlina of fatal child abuse--which carried a potential life sentence--but deadlocked on involuntary manslaughter. In November, a second jury deadlocked on the manslaughter charge, voting 7 to 5 in favor of conviction.

“It must be frustrating to the parents of the child. It’s a disappointing outcome,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Glazier. “It’s the judge’s decision. He thought it was unlikely another jury would return a unanimous verdict.”

Kodi’s parents, Eric and Trish Vedder, could not be reached for comment Friday. The couple’s attorney, Christina Anne Fountain, said the dismissal is “an incredible disappointment.”

“It’s devastating,” Fountain said. “It could only be unimaginable pain for the Vedders.”

In an agreement with the state Department of Social Services, Orlina and her husband, Raymond, were banned for life from operating a licensed care facility in California. A civil lawsuit the Vedders filed against Orlina is pending, Fountain said.

Orlina could not be reached for comment, and her attorney did not return phone calls. During her first trial, several parents of children Orlina had cared for testified on her behalf.

Without a witness, it is often difficult for prosecutors to win convictions in assaults against children, legal experts said. In the Orlina case, Weatherspoon prohibited evidence that at least three other children were injured at the day care center, including one who had three teeth knocked loose.

Those injuries could have been accidental and introducing them as evidence would be prejudicial, the judge ruled.

“These are extremely difficult cases to try,” said Christopher Evans, a former Orange County homicide prosecutor. “Often the injuries have to relate backward to a time when the perpetrator was with the child. And lack of witnesses is almost always a problem.”

This is the latest in a series of reversals in Orange County cases in which a child died.

In December 1999, a Santa Ana appeals court overturned the murder convictions of two Orange County women, finding insufficient evidence that they inflicted mortal injuries on their children.

In April, an Orange County judge dismissed a murder charge against a Lake Forest man accused of killing a friend’s month-old infant while baby-sitting. A jury had earlier deadlocked on the charge.