Mother Pleads No Contest in Drowning of 2 Children

Fumiko Kimura, the despondent Japanese mother whose two children died after she walked into the Pacific Ocean off Santa Monica with them early this year, pleaded no contest Friday to two counts of voluntary manslaughter.

The 32-year-old Tarzana woman, who had been charged with two counts of murder and two counts of felony child endangering, faces a maximum sentence of 13 years in prison when she is sentenced by Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Robert W. Thomas.

Although her scheduled sentencing date is Nov. 21, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lauren L. Weis, who prosecuted the case, said Friday it is likely that Kimura will first be sent to a state prison facility for a 90-day diagnostic study.

Kimura, apparently attempting to commit suicide, walked into the sea near the Santa Monica Pier with her two children on a cold, sunny afternoon last Jan. 29, about 10 days after learning that her husband had kept a mistress for three years.

Pulled From Water

The woman, who immigrated here 14 years ago, was arrested after she was pulled unconscious from the water by two college students. But her son, Kazutaka, 4, and her 6-month-old daughter, Yuri, died.

The case has drawn widespread interest--and Kimura has received considerable support and sympathy within the local Japanese community--due to the apparent cultural implications of her action.

In Japan, suicide is considered an honorable way of dying. And mothers who kill themselves with their children are considered disturbed, but such acts, observers have said, are understood within the culture and are rarely punished severely.

However, the decision to accept Kimura’s plea, Weis said, “was not based on the fact that Mrs. Kimura was Japanese, or that this kind of thing does happen at times in Japan.”

Rather, she explained, the agreement was reached because psychiatric reports prepared for the defense “reflected that her mental state at the time of the crime was not that which was required for murder charges.”

“Basically, with voluntary manslaughter, there is the intent to kill--what most think of as the passion-type killings,” Weis said. “The psychiatric reports did not reflect she had . . . the required malice state for murder.”

‘Unusual Case’

“It is less than a murder case,” added Assistant Dist. Atty. Curt Livesay. “It’s an unusual case, obviously, because of the facts that a mother almost killed herself and did kill her two very small children.”

Kimura’s attorney, Gerald H. Klausner, said the plea was “a just, reasonable and sensible case disposition after months of negotiations. I felt that a trial would be extremely difficult and painful for Fumiko. On that basis, we concluded that it was the right thing to do.”

During the brief court hearing Friday, initially scheduled for pretrial motions, Kimura expressed little emotion. But afterward, as she was being led back into custody--she has been incarcerated ever since her arrest--she began to cry.

A crowd of supporters, including her husband, Itsuroku, 40, a restaurateur, looked on as the plea was entered, Klausner said.

“Fumiko supressed her emotions until it was over and then on the way out, she started to weep,” the attorney said.

Under terms of the agreement, Thomas will have complete discretion in sentencing Kimura. Voluntary manslaughter charges carry optional prison terms of 3, 6 or 11 years, but Thomas could also grant probation or place the defendant in a state hospital.

Klausner said that “although there have been no official promises, I don’t expect her to go to prison.”

‘Mitigating Circumstances’

“There are so many mitigating circumstances,” he asserted. “At the time of the (tragedy), she was just emotionally ill.”

If the case had gone to a trial, which was scheduled to begin in early November, Kimura could have faced the possibility of the death penalty if convicted, since the district attorney’s office had alleged the special circumstance of multiple murder.

But Livesay said that “it would have been unlikely” that prosecutors would have sought capital punishment.

Livesay said that the district attorney’s office will await recommendations from the county Probation Department before determining what sentence to seek on the no contest pleas, which are equivalent to guilty pleas.