Mother of Dead Twins Ordered to Take Diagnostic Test Before She Is Sentenced

A Superior Court judge Friday ordered Beverly Jean Ernst, convicted of child endangerment in the deaths of her twin infants, to undergo a 90-day diagnostic study before she is sentenced.

Judge Jean H. Rheinheimer ordered Ernst taken arrested for the diagnostic tests at Frontera, the women’s state prison south of Chino. Based on those tests, Rheinheimer will receive a recommendation on whether Ernst should be sent to state prison or granted probation.

A condition of possible probation could be up to a year in the Orange County Jail, or time at some type of counseling facility.

Left Children Alone

Ernst, a 25-year-old Anaheim resident, was convicted of child endangerment for leaving her twin infants alone in a hot car for about five hours while she slept with a boyfriend in a nearby air-conditioned building last year in Garden Grove.

At the first day of her sentencing hearing last month, prosecutors presented evidence that she had also seriously abused her two older children when they were of pre-school age. Prosecutors also showed that she was a heavy drug user even after her twins were born.

“Miss Ernst’s four children were just little bumps in the road on her way to the party,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Wallace J. Wade said at Friday’s sentencing hearing.

Wade, who prosecuted Ernst, has asked for a four-year state prison sentence. Ernst’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Dennis P. O’Connell, has asked for probation but offered to have Ernst spend a year in an out-of-state counseling facility.

“Sending her to state prison is . . . like throwing in the towel,” O’Connell said Friday. “She knows she cannot continue her life the way it is, and she knows she cannot change her life without some help.”

O’Connell warned that unless Ernst receives therapy, she could be a danger to any future children she might have. And he argued that state prison is inappropriate because Ernst never intended to harm the twins.

“This woman feels remorse; she clearly admits wrongdoing,” O’Connell declared.

Rheinheimer gave no indication of her future decision.

Wade said later that in most cases with which he is familiar, defendants who are considered candidates for a diagnostic study usually are recommended for probation.

“But I have a lot of confidence in this particular judge, that she is going to end up doing the right thing,” Wade said.

Says She Needs Help

Ernst’s brother, Steven Ernst, said after the hearing that he doesn’t want to see her go to state prison but that “I want her to go someplace where she can get some help.”

Ernst, who has been free without bail, broke into tears when she learned that she was to be arrested. O’Connell spent several minutes sitting with her and explaining what would take place during the diagnostic study.

Judge Rheinheimer told Ernst that the study results “will be of considerable importance to this court, so I would urge you to give your fullest cooperation.”

Rheinheimer reset Ernst’s sentencing for Oct. 30.