Local News in Brief : Fullerton : Teen-Ager Pleads Guilty to Murdering Her Baby

A 16-year-old girl has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for suffocating her newborn son with a plastic bag and abandoning him in a trash bin.

Juana Hernandez Lopez of Fullerton, who killed her son Oct. 9 shortly after his birth, could be committed to the California Youth Authority for up to nine years.

Her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Laureen J. Gray, said Thursday that Lopez was a victim of unfortunate circumstances and was not “a hard-core offender.”

Gay said she would ask Superior Court Judge C. Robert Jameson that Lopez be sentenced to Juvenile Hall followed by counseling.

The prosecutor said he would seek the maximum term, which is confinement by the California Youth Authority. The authority can hold its convicts until they reach age 25.

“The actions she exhibited would show a certain callousness and disregard for human life and a lack of remorse for what she did,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael A. Jacobs said.

Lopez, who gave birth to another son when she was 14, had a difficult childhood and now lives with her child in a house with four families, Gray said. She is a Mexican immigrant who speaks no English, Gray said.

“This is a home where there wasn’t much parenting or nurturing,” she said. “The fact that the parents weren’t aware she was pregnant either time shows they weren’t aware of her situation.”

Jacobs said that regardless of Lopez’s family situation, “someone’s dead. Whether he was 1 day old or 20 years old, it doesn’t matter.”

Sentencing is scheduled for April 11.