Woman Pleads Not Guilty in Babies’ Deaths

The mother of infant twins who died of heat stroke after she left them unattended in her car last month was charged Monday with two counts each of involuntary manslaughter and involuntary child endangerment.

Beverly Jean Ernst, 25, of Anaheim pleaded not guilty to the four felony charges. The 3-month-old infants died July 20 after Ernst left them in her car while visiting a friend at a Garden Grove janitorial supply store.

Under the California penal code, involuntary manslaughter is defined as killing through “gross negligence” or “without due caution.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Wallace J. Wade, who is prosecuting the case, requested that bail be set at $25,000 because, he said, Ernst had been living out of her car before the infants died and might not show up at future court appearances. Wade also said, however, that he would defer to the judgment of a county detention release representative, who recommended bail of $10,000.

But Robert Goss, the deputy public defender representing Ernst at the hearing, argued that she had known since her arrest July 20 that she might be facing a criminal trial and has remained at her mother’s Anaheim home. Goss also said that Ernst has a part-time job at a restaurant.

Municipal Court Judge Marvin G. Weeks, taking note of the deaths as “a tragedy,” released Ernst without bail. He scheduled an Aug. 29 pretrial hearing and a Sept. 15 preliminary hearing to be held in his Westminster court.

Ernst was flanked by her older brother and three friends during the short afternoon hearing. She shielded her face from television cameras and did not comment--other than to sigh with relief--before leaving the courthouse.

Ernst was arrested last month after she discovered that the infants, who had been strapped into child safety seats in the back seat of her car, were not breathing. Police have said the babies were left unattended in Ernst’s older-model Chevrolet, parked in an unshaded area, for about an hour.

But Goss said he believes that she woman left the babies in her car for only 15 to 20 minutes.

Only one of the car’s four windows was open--about an inch, police have said. Firefighters have said the temperature on that day in a closed car could have reached 120 degrees.

Other than to say that autopsies conducted last month and subsequent laboratory studies indicated that both babies had been in the hot car “considerably longer than 15 to 20 minutes,” Wade would not say after the arraignment precisely how long he believed the children had been left unattended.

But he said that length of time was the most critical point in his decision to charge Ernst with the felonies.

He added: “We don’t think there was any intent on her part” to harm the children.