The Region - News from Feb. 28, 1985

A Wilshire area woman who fatally stabbed her 6-year-old daughter was sentenced to prison for 16 years to life. Ivy Elaine Smith, 27, had pleaded guilty in Los Angeles Superior Court to a charge of second-degree murder. Smith told authorities that her husband and daughter, Felicia, had been tormenting her and had repeatedly indicated to her that she was going to drown. “She said (her daughter) spilled water a lot and she felt that that was her way of telling her that she was going to drown,” recalled Police Detective Trinka Porrata, who interviewed Smith. Smith told Porrata that, after another spill last Sept. 25, she got a knife and stabbed her daughter in her bed. Smith then drove to Point Fermin near San Pedro and walked into the surf fully clothed, but changed her mind about suicide and returned to her apartment on South 6th Avenue. Smith, an out-of-work clerk-typist with a history of mental illness and drug abuse, changed into dry clothes, drove to a police station and confessed.