Orange County mother convicted of dropping baby from parking garage receives life sentence
An Orange County mother convicted last year of dropping her baby off a parking garage in 2011 was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison Wednesday.
On Aug. 22, 2011, Sonia Hermosillo, now 42, dropped her 7-month-old son, Noe Medina Jr., off the fourth floor of a parking garage at Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Noe died a few days later.
In a statement to the court Hermosillo delivered Wednesday via a Spanish-language interpreter, the La Habra woman expressed regret and asked for “an opportunity to be with my daughters,” the Orange County Register reported.
“Please, your honor, I know that what I did was wrong, but I regret doing that from the bottom of my heart,” Hermosillo said, according to the Register.
Hermosillo was arrested after reportedly returning to the area near the hospital following the incident. She was charged with first-degree murder and child assault causing death, and pleaded not guilty.
Socialite Rebecca Grossman will be tried on murder and vehicular manslaughter charges in crash that killed two young boys, judge rules.
Hermosillo had removed a safety helmet Noe wore before dropping him from the parking garage, authorities said.
She was found competent to stand trial and convicted of both counts in August, after years of hearings and motions. A jury found her sane in September.
Hermosillo’s defense attorney had argued that she was not guilty by reason of insanity, the Register reported.
Following the incident, her husband said she had suffered from postpartum psychosis after Noe was born.
Hermosillo then became nearly catatonic and believed herself a danger to her other children, the Register reported.
One of Hermosillo’s daughters told Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger on Wednesday that her mother “was not an evil person” and that Noe’s birth her “world turned upside down,” the Register reported.
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