Garden Grove : Mother of Twins Who Died Remains in Jail
The mother of infant twins who died after she left them in a hot car last weekend remained in County Jail Thursday because her family was unable to post her $5,000 bail.
However, the public defender representing Beverly Jean Ernst is expected to request that she be released on her own recognizance at a North County Municipal Court hearing this morning.
The district attorney’s office has not charged Ernst with the deaths Sunday of her 3-month-old babies. Prosecutors would have been obligated to free her Wednesday had they not arraigned her that day on a separate charge of violating her probation on a previous misdemeanor conviction.
A judge set Ernst’s bail at $5,000 on that charge and ordered her to appear in court today for a pretrial hearing.
Ernst, 25, was arrested Sunday in Garden Grove on suspicion of manslaughter and cruelty to children resulting in death, after the twins--a boy and a girl--died of apparent heat stroke.
Police have said that the babies were left in child safety seats in Ernst’s closed car for at least an hour while the mother visited with a friend at a Garden Grove business. Ernst has declined to comment about the case to the media.
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