California mother convicted of fatally stabbing 3 young daughters

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge convicted a 32-year-old woman Monday of fatally stabbing her three young daughters.

Judge Ricardo Ocampo found Carol Ann Coronado guilty in the slayings of her daughters Sophia, 2; Yazmine, 16 months; and Xenia, 2 months, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

The children’s bodies were found laid out on a bed riddled with stab wounds on May 20, 2014, in the family’s West Carson home.

Coronado, barely clothed, was found with self-inflicted wounds next to her dead children, authorities said.

An attorney representing Coronado said the judge’s decision was not surprising.

“Our main issue now is whether or not she was insane at the time of the incident,” said Stephen Allen, a Riverside-based defense attorney.

Coronado had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and had waived her right to a jury trial. She returns to a Compton courtroom Tuesday for the start of the sanity phase of her trial, which will be decided by Ocampo.

During the next phase, Allen said four doctors will testify that Coronado had a type of psychotic episode.

“No sane mother does something like this, especially someone with no record, who loved her kids by all accounts,” Allen added.

Prosecutors had declined to seek the death penalty. If found sane at the time of the triple killings, Coronado faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.