Mother Left Baby Girl on Roadside, Court Told : Oxnard: A woman faces child-abuse charges after testimony that she abandoned the infant during a fight with the man she says is the father.

Lori Carlson wept in Ventura County Municipal Court on Thursday as witnesses testified that she ditched her infant daughter on the Pacific Coast Highway shoulder in Oxnard on May 29 and sped away.

After hearing testimony, Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren ordered Carlson, 20, of Santa Ana to be held on $25,000 bond until she is arraigned on child-abuse charges in Ventura County Superior Court on June 28. If convicted, Carlson could face up to six years in prison for charges of deserting a child with intent to abandon and willful cruelty to a child.

Deputy Public Defender Christina Briles argued that Carlson had left her infant by the side of the road as a ploy to persuade the baby’s father to take care of her. “It was an act of desperation on her part to get him to be the father, emotionally and financially,” Briles said.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela M. Henke-Dobroth argued that Carlson intended to abandon 10-month-old Brittany, who is now living with Carlson’s parents in Santa Ana.

During Thursday’s hearing, witnesses testified that Carlson appeared to have been drinking and that she tried several times that night to foist her daughter off on other people.

Wayne Jefferds, Carlson’s former boyfriend, testified that he had lived with her for about two years before their relationship dissolved in April.

Asked if he was Brittany’s father, Jefferds said, “I’m not sure, but I think it’s possible.” The remark drew a look of tearful, open-mouthed shock from Carlson. She continued crying throughout the hearing, repeatedly reaching for tissues that a bailiff had placed on the defense table.

Although Jefferds has not reconciled with Carlson, he did not support the prosecutor’s allegations. “There was no intent to abandon the baby,” he said. “Her intent was obvious, it was to get me to stay.”

Brittany Carlson’s ordeal began at dusk in the parking lot of the Oxnard Lodge Motel, where Jefferds and Carlson went to pick up a used car.

Jefferds said he refused to take Brittany home in the used car because it was full of dog feces from the previous owner’s puppy. But Carlson shoved her daughter through the car’s window as he sat there, then locked herself into her own car, he testified.

Jefferds got out and set the baby on the hood of Carlson’s car.

Carlson then drove the length of six parking spaces with her daughter balanced on the hood, he said. Carlson stopped carefully, put Brittany inside the car with her 3-year-old daughter, Alicia, and drove away, Jefferds testified.

Jefferds followed in his car, and their argument over who should take the infant continued every time he caught up to Carlson at a traffic light. But Jefferds said Carlson would speed away when the light turned green, and he kept falling behind because his car was stuck in low gear.

At one point, Carlson bumped Jefferds’ car with hers, then drove away at high speed south along Oxnard Boulevard, he testified.

Another motorist, Jesus Garcia, testified that he saw Carlson leave something on the shoulder and drive away.

Garcia said he pulled off the road and found Brittany there, wailing. “She had her little hands like this,” Garcia testified, holding up his fists to mimic the crying baby.

Garcia put Brittany in his car and caught up with Carlson, who had stopped farther down the road. He said he asked Carlson “if she knew what she had done, and she said ‘yes.’ ”

“First I told her that her girl had been run over, and then she got scared and she got as if she was crazy, and when I saw her in that state, I told her those were lies,” Garcia said. “I told her I had picked up the girl, I told her to calm down.”

Garcia said he handed Brittany to her mother, who grabbed her and began kissing her.

Carlson then said, “There’s her father,” and pointed at Jefferds, who had stopped on the other side of the divided highway, Garcia said.

Jefferds approached Carlson and asked to take the baby. But she refused, shoved the baby into Garcia’s chest and drove away, both men testified.

Garcia said Jefferds then demanded the girl. “He was yelling at me quite desperately for me to give him the girl,” Garcia said. “I thought, if they had already left her lying there. . . . I decided to take her home and call the police to report it.”

And he did, Garcia testified.