Woman Gets 30 Years for Killing Her 2 Children

A San Diego County woman who killed her two disabled children in separate incidents five years apart and escaped detection until she turned herself in was sentenced Wednesday to the maximum prison term--30 years to life.

Debra Sue Robles, 28, was sentenced in Superior Court in San Diego to two consecutive terms of 15 years to life for the suffocation murders of 4-month-old Matthew Josiah Robles on May 4, 1980, and 6-year-old John Peter Robles on Jan. 21, 1985.

Autopsy reports had attributed the deaths to natural causes--hydrocephaly in the case of Matthew and cerebral palsy in the case of John. Then shortly after midnight on Jan. 28, 1986, Robles appeared at El Cajon police headquarters and confessed to both murders.

“This is probably the most tragic and bizarre case I’ve ever seen in my practice of criminal law,” said Stephen Anear, an assistant district attorney. He asked Judge Richard Huffman for consecutive sentences, arguing that Robles is a threat to public safety.

But Michael Popkins, Robles’ court-appointed defense lawyer, asked for leniency in the form of concurrent terms. He argued that mental illness had left Robles incapable of caring for her children, and that county social workers had failed to protect them.

“In my opinion, I think both homicides could have been prevented,” Popkins said. “John’s should have been prevented. A lot of things that went on here were not only Debra’s fault, but other people’s fault as well.”

Popkins cited the county Social Services Bureau, which had removed John Robles from the home within months of his birth. John was returned home in 1983--three years after the death of Matthew, which at the time was believed to have been natural.

“It’s remarkable,” said Huffman, referring to John Robles’ return to his parents. “It’s not, however, in my judgment, a factor in mitigation. Because the defendant aided in society’s failure by lying.”

Doctors suspect that John Robles contracted cerebral palsy at 6 months of age after his mother gave him a dose of a psychotropic drug that had been prescribed for her. Robles said she did it to calm a fit of colic, then discovered that he had gone into a coma.

Robles’ husband, Vincent, who recently filed for divorce, was away from the home at the time of the murders and was not charged with any responsibility in the deaths.