Witness: Twins Had Been Left in Car Before

Twin infants who died from heat stroke in an unattended car while their mother slept with a boyfriend nearby had been left alone in the same car earlier in the day, a prosecution witness testified Friday.

The attorney for Beverly Jean Ernst, who faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment, does not dispute that Ernst left them alone in the car for five hours--from 7 a.m. to noon--on July 20, while she slept in a nearby shop in Garden Grove. He claims that she meant to take just a short nap and that the boyfriend, Scott Morrow, had promised to watch the children.

But Greg Alfadley testified Friday that the babies were alone in the car when he drove up at 3 a.m. that day to the janitorial supply shop where Morrow was living. Ernst and Morrow were inside with the lights out, and it appeared that they were asleep then, too, Alfadley said.

“Scott came to the door, and he looked like he had been asleep,” Alfadley said. “I asked if he wanted to go for coffee. He said, ‘Yeah, give us about 20 minutes to get ready.’ ”

Alfadley said that Ernst and Morrow drove to an Anaheim restaurant in Ernst’s car and that they took the babies with them when they went in for coffee. Alfadley was in a separate car.

Ernst’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Dennis P. O’Connell, contends that Ernst had not intended to return to Morrow’s shop after she and Morrow had coffee with Alfadley. But when she drove back to the shop to drop Morrow off, she went inside to take a nap after Morrow promised to watch the twins while she slept, according to O’Connell.

Ernst, 25, who has been living with friends since moving out of her mother’s Anaheim home nearly a year ago, was arrested soon after she and Morrow discovered the children, Adam and Ashley, dead inside the hot car shortly after noon. It was locked, with the windows rolled up and one of them open about an inch.

Alfadley’s testimony came on the fifth day of Ernst’s preliminary hearing in West Municipal Court Judge Dan C. Dutcher’s courtroom. The hearing is expected to end Monday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Wallace J. Wade brought on Alfadley to show that Ernst’s leaving the babies alone while she slept was not just a one-time occurrence.

O’Connell brought out on cross-examination that, before the trip to the restaurant, the door of the shop where Morrow was living had been left open while Ernst and Morrow were inside and that Ernst had parked her car as near as possible to an open window near where she slept.

Alfadley said he was so surprised to see the babies left alone that he asked Morrow about it. He said Morrow nodded only as if to indicate that he knew the babies were there.

Alfadley did help support the defense’s contention that it was Morrow’s idea that she return to the shop--not Ernst’s. In fact, Alfadley said, the plan when they left the restaurant was for her to drop off Morrow and then go to her friend’s house to pick up some of her things. She was in the process of moving again.

But Alfadley was adamant in his testimony that Morrow never told him he had promised Ernst he would watch the children while she slept.

“He told me he felt responsible, but only because if he hadn’t coaxed her into going in, it never would have happened,” Alfadley said.

Alfadley, who suffers from agoraphobia, a fear of public places, was allowed to testify in the jury room in a closed hearing.

Ernst’s brother, Stephen Ernst, also testified Friday, saying that on two occasions previously he or his mother had “gotten on her case” about leaving the children unattended in a hot car.

But the brother insisted that she never did it again after the last time he said something about it.