Dead Twins’ Mother Told to Stand Trial for Manslaughter

A 25-year-old mother whose twin infants died from heat stroke after she left them in an unattended car for five hours was ordered Monday to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter charges in Orange County Superior Court.

Handing down that order, Municipal Judge Dan C. Dutcher said “not one person in a thousand” would consider such conduct “anything other than the grossest of negligence.”

The mother, Beverly Jean Ernst, who had been calm through most of her six-day preliminary hearing, ran from the courtroom in tears.

According to testimony at the hearing, Ernst’s twin babies, Ashley and Adam, were left in her car in Garden Grove from 7 a.m. to shortly past noon July 20, while she and a boyfriend, Scott Morrow, slept inside a nearby janitorial supply shop where Morrow was living. Health officials estimated that the noontime temperature inside the car could have been as high as 120 degrees.

Ernst’s attorney claims that she took a nap inside the shop after Morrow agreed to watch the children for her, then discovered to her horror when she awoke that Morrow had fallen asleep too.

But Dutcher said there was no evidence during the preliminary hearing that Morrow had promised to watch the children. Even if he had, the judge said, there was some question whether she should have fallen asleep knowing the two babies still were in the car.

Dutcher ordered her to stand trial on two counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of felony child endangerment.

The judge said the circumstances would have been worse if Ernst had been awake during the five hours the children were alone in the car. But he added that “any reasonable person would have to realize they were courting disaster . . . when you’ve got someone so precious out in the car.”

Dutcher said he was sympathetic to Ernst and that he is sure that she “will regret for the rest of her life” what happened.

But, the judge added, “I couldn’t sit here in good conscience and say that what she did doesn’t amount to culpable negligence.”

He said Ernst’s conduct is hard to understand because she did have an alternative: She could have brought them into the shop with her. If something bad had happened to the children then, Dutcher said, it would be much more understandable.

“You just do not leave children in cars,” the judge said.

Deputy Public Defender Dennis P. O’Connell said later that he is sure that, at her trial, a jury will be convinced that Morrow agreed to watch the babies for her and that she had no intention of taking anything more than a short nap.

O’Connell has been highly critical of the district attorney’s office for pursuing a case against Ernst. She already has suffered more than she could because of any jail sen tence, O’Connell said. And even if she is convicted, O’Connell said, he does not believe that any judge would send her to jail over what happened.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Wallace J. Wade said his office has a duty to prosecute Ernst.

“Those two children had certain rights, and it’s our responsibility to see that those rights are vindicated,” Wade said.

Wade said his office is sympathetic to Ernst. But, he added, that sympathy cannot interfere with his responsibility.

Shortly after Ernst’s arrest, the Garden Grove police reported that she told them that she had been inside the shop no more than an hour visiting a friend on the day of her babies’ deaths. Later on, O’Connell said he did not believe from what he knew that she had been gone more than 20 minutes.

But O’Connell did not dispute the basic facts about what happened as told by witnesses introduced by Wade.

Ernst and Morrow were inside the shop, with the lights out and the twins alone in her car, when Greg Alfadley showed up that morning about 3 a.m. to see if they wanted to go for coffee, Alfadley testified. They all went inside an Anaheim restaurant, with the babies, and stayed for more than 3 hours, he said.

Morrow and Ernst returned to the shop alone, leaving the babies outside in the car, at about 7 a.m., according to testimony at the hearing.

O’Connell pointed out that Ernst had parked her car next to the door of the supply shop. She was closer to her babies in distance, O’Connell said, “than I am to my own kids at home at night.

Dutcher said that wasn’t a valid argument.

“Your children aren’t out in a car, with the windows rolled up . . . exposed to the elements,” the judge said.