Anaheim : Woman Files Insanity Plea in Death of Baby

A young Anaheim woman charged with murder in the death of her infant son filed an insanity plea in Superior Court on Tuesday after telling a psychiatrist that during the tension of dealing with the baby’s chronic illness voices told her he was “a demon.”

Sheryl Lynn Massip, 23, was arrested April 28 a few hours after her 6-week-old son, Michael Alfredo Massip, was found in a trash container in Fullerton. Medical evidence showed that the child had been run over by a car, and Massip’s husband, Alfredo Gomez Massip, said she confessed killing the child.

“I think those voices were very real to her,” said her attorney, Milton C. Grimes. “It is a part of her postpartum depression and was brought on by a chemical imbalance.”

Grimes added his client did not receive medication she should have had and should have been hospitalized in the week before the child’s death.

“She very much needed help, and everyone knew it,” Grimes said. “She was a very normal woman before the baby was born. She very much wanted a baby.”

Grimes said the decision was made to include an insanity plea along with Massip’s plea of not guilty after he read a psychiatric report on her.

The court Tuesday appointed two other psychiatrists to interview Massip, a standard procedure when insanity pleas are entered. She is scheduled to return to court Oct. 20.