Mother Charged in Drownings

A despondent Tarzana woman who walked into the Pacific Ocean last week, in what police said was an apparent effort to drown herself and her two children, was charged Monday with two counts of murder that include the possibility of punishment by death or life imprisonment without parole.

Fumiko Kimura, 32, will be arraigned this morning in Santa Monica Municipal Court.

The woman’s 6-month-old daughter, Yuri, died Saturday at UCLA Medical Center. Her 4-year-old son, Kazutaka, died last Tuesday, hours after the incident in the surf near the Santa Monica Pier.

In filing charges, the district attorney’s office asked that Kimura be eligible for the death penalty if convicted because the crime involved a multiple murder, one of the circumstances that the state Supreme Court has found to be punishable by death.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Neidorf said that while his office has not yet decided what punishment it would seek if Kimura were convicted, the office wants to preserve the right to argue for the maximum penalty.

Kimura was transferred Monday to Sybil Brand Institute, the county jail facility for women, after she was released in good condition from the jail ward at County-USC Medical Center, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

Her husband, Isuroku Kimura, 40, is reportedly staying with friends after being hospitalized for shock and placed in protective custody for three days after the suicide attempt, Neidorf said.

Marital Problems

According to neighbors, the woman was despondent over marital problems when she walked into the sea with her children. Members of the Japanese community in Los Angeles called the act a traditional manner of suicide in Kimura’s homeland.

Two college students pulled the three unconscious people from the surf.

Santa Monica Detective Ray Cooper said the woman has neither a history of suicide attempts nor a criminal record. He also said that hours before the drowning, Kimura telephoned relatives in Japan.

“The marital problems are what precipitated the whole thing,” Cooper said. “From our perspective the case is pretty well wrapped up.”