Vista Woman Is Sentenced to 6 Years in Death of 17-Month-Old Adopted Son

A Vista woman who killed her adopted 17-month-old son was sentenced Friday to six years in state prison after a prosecutor told the judge the child’s injuries were “comparable to placing a child in a cement mixer.”

Cherie Adams, 35, could have been sentenced to a maximum 11 years in prison, as the prosecutor had recommended.

Bryan Adams, who had Down’s Syndrome, died Nov. 27, 1990, as a result of beating.

Cherie Adams pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter last month and a murder charge was dismissed. At first, Adams said the injuries to her son were from a fall, but a medical examiner who performed an autopsy testified that the boy would not have suffered such injuries in a fall.

“Frankly, I have a woman before me who lost it . . . and she took it out on the child,” San Diego Superior Court Judge Jesus Rodriguez said.

The judge said Adams misrepresented herself to the adoption agency by not disclosing some facts about herself. Deputy Dist. Atty. John Williams told the court Adams had committed bigamy, had several aliases and had married one husband while using a phony name. The prosecutor also said Adams abandoned three of her own children in another state. He called her “a pathological liar . . . who is manipulative.”

Her attorney, William Rafael, urged a lesser sentence, noting she had no record and had an “excellent” career in the Navy. “This was a single explosive incident, and that’s what happened . . . one regrettable incident,” Rafael said. He also said it was “absurd” to compare the boy’s injuries to a child being tossed around in a cement mixer.

Rafael disputed Williams’ assertion that her three children were abandoned, saying they were given up for adoption. She had a hysterectomy some years ago and she and her husband, James Adams, 28, did not realize “the difficulties in adopting a Down’s syndrome baby,” said her attorney. Adams herself had “an unusually difficult childhood--in and out of foster homes,” he added.

Williams told the judge that Adams knew her adopted son needed special care but said sheriff’s deputies had found a wooden paddle in the home inscribed with the words, “Bryan’s Attitude Adjuster.”

At the time of the boy’s death, James Adams was on duty in Hawaii as a submariner. Williams said he has since filed for divorce.