Jurists Uphold Reversal in O.C. Baby’s Death

A judge’s controversial decision to set aside the murder conviction of an Anaheim woman who killed her baby in 1987 while in the throes of postpartum psychosis was unanimously upheld Thursday by a state appellate court.

Sheryl Lynn Massip was the first murder defendant in Southern California to argue that the rare mental disorder, which causes vast emotional changes in some new mothers, made her legally insane at the time of the crime.

A month after a jury convicted Massip of second-degree murder in November, 1988, exposing her to a potential prison term of 16 years to life, Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald reduced the verdict to voluntary manslaughter by reason of insanity. The judge then freed Massip to undergo outpatient treatment for at least a year.

A three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled Thursday that the judge’s unusual action did not exceed his authority, as prosecutors in the Orange County district attorney’s office had argued.

Although the appellate court agreed in part that a trial judge usually has the power only to order a new trial to determine if a defendant is insane, it decided that such a delay would have placed “a substantial burden” on Massip and caused a “disruptive effect on her progress. . . . “

Fitzgerald’s actions, the appellate panel declared, “reflect a clear understanding of (the trial court’s) responsibilities and of the standards to be employed in assessing the jury’s verdict.”

The opinion was certified as a ruling that can be used as legal precedent in the state.

Fitzgerald, who has been a jurist for 14 years, welcomed the news Thursday, saying that reversing the jury’s verdict was the most difficult decision he has ever made on the bench.

“It was the only jury reversal I’ve ever done,” Fitzgerald said, “and I hope it is the only one I ever have to do.”

Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Maurice L. Evans said his staff is reviewing the appellate ruling and expects to decide soon whether to take the case to the state Supreme Court.

Massip’s attorney, Milton C. Grimes, said he hopes that prosecutors will let the matter drop.

“I’m absolutely overwhelmed and pleased that the appellate court supported the judge’s decision,” Grimes said.

Massip, a former beautician, placed her colicky, 6-week-old son, Michael, on a Fullerton street and crushed his head by running over him with the family car. She then stuffed his body into a garbage can and told her husband that the infant had been snatched from her arms by a unknown woman. Massip later confessed to her husband when he became suspicious.

Prosecutors had argued that Massip, 24 at the time, had been frustrated by the baby’s condition and constant crying and had knowingly run over the infant and made up the kidnaping story to save herself from prison.

During trial, Massip contended that because of postpartum psychosis, she heard eerie voices telling her to put the infant “out of his misery.”

After two months of testimony and seven days of deliberation, however, the jury rejected her claim and found her guilty of murder.

Fitzgerald shocked lawyers on both sides of the case, first when he set aside the verdict and then, in March of last year, when he rejected the prosecutors’ recommendation that Massip be confined to a state mental hospital.

In reviewing the case, the appellate panel found that “before giving birth, Massip was a happy, healthy, nonviolent person who looked forward to motherhood.”

“However, after Michael was born, she began feeling confused and worthless; and during the next six weeks she could neither sleep nor eat. She began having suicidal thoughts, such as jumping off a building or out of a window. She also experienced hallucinations; voices were telling her the baby was in pain.”

During the trial, “Massip presented three mental health experts who consistently testified she was psychotic and operating under hallucinations and delusions resulting from severe mental illness, causing her to lose touch with reality,” the panel said.