Mother Ordered to Trial in Two Child Drownings

Fumiko Kimura, whose two children died after she allegedly attempted suicide by walking into the Pacific Ocean with them, is to stand trial for murder.

Santa Monica Municipal Judge Rex H. Minter set her Superior Court arraignment for May 3 and ordered her held in lieu of $100,000 bail on Thursday.

Kimura, 32, of Tarzana had been held without bail since she was pulled unconscious from the ocean near the Santa Monica Pier by two college students on Jan 29. Her son, Kazutaka, 4, and her 6-month-old daughter, Yuri, died.

Although Minter said Thursday that he feared Kimura “may attempt to complete the act (suicide) if I should set bail,” he initially set bail at $50,000. Deputy Dist. Atty. Louise E. Comar objected, however, saying she feared that Kimura might leave the country, so Minter raised the bail to $100,000.

Kimura has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two counts of felony child endangering. She could face the death penalty because the district attorney’s office has alleged the special circumstance of multiple murder.

The Japanese community in Los Angeles has rallied to Kimura since the incident, and Minter’s courtroom was packed with her supporters.

“In Japanese culture, the child is considered part of the mother,” Yoshiko Yamaguchi, a consultant to the San Fernando Valley Japanese-American Community Center said outside court.

“We were shocked that she faces the death penalty even though she had no intention of surviving. I’m not trying to excuse what she did. I’m trying to explain it.”

She added that in Japan, parent-child suicide is a common occurrence and Japanese law treats it as involuntary manslaughter, which usually results in a suspended sentence with supervised probation.

According to police reports, Kimura told investigators that she became despondent and set out to kill herself and her children after learning in mid-January that her husband of eight years, Itsuroku Kamura, had been having an affair for the last three years.

Kimura’s defense attorney, Gerald Klausner, moved to have her statement to investigators excluded from evidence on the grounds that Santa Monica Police Officer Mitchell Kato had mistranslated her rights to her.

Minter ruled that the officer’s translation had been insufficient but added that Kimura, who has lived in this country for 14 years, “understood her rights and freely and voluntarily gave them up.”

Kimura maintained her composure through most of the preliminary hearing Thursday. But when a witness who had been on the beach described how he found Kimura’s baby’s bag with a nursing bottle and a hamburger wrapper inside, Kimura broke down at the defense table and sobbed.