Man Gets 2 Years in Drug-Related Death of Daughter : Sentencing: His wife is granted probation. The couple were charged with exposing the infant and her brother to cocaine.

A Santa Ana man whose baby daughter died after being exposed to cocaine in 1986 was sentenced Friday to two years in state prison, while his wife received probation for her involvement in the case.

The couple, Gilbert and Debbie Delgado, had earlier been charged with murder in the death of their 2-month-old daughter, Stephanie, in 1986, and with exposing an infant son, Gilbert Jr., to cocaine 18 months later.

A toxicology report from the Orange County crime lab determined that Stephanie had cocaine in her system sometime before her death. But the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard King, told the court earlier this year that the report “raises at least a reasonable doubt that the child’s death was the direct result of cocaine ingestion.”

Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzgerald dismissed the murder charge--the first time such a charge was brought under such circumstances in Orange County. The Delgados each pleaded guilty July 19 to two counts of child endangerment and four counts related to the possession of illegal drugs.

King agreed to probation for Debbie Delgado, 26, which will include regular drug testing, but asked that her 29-year-old husband be sentenced to a five-year term in state prison.

“Mr. Delgado was the person who was the moving force behind the dealing of drugs,” King said. By his conduct, he placed his daughter “in an inherently dangerous environment. It was a death waiting to happen. Gilbert (Jr.) was in that same environment.”

Dennis P. O’Connell, Gilbert Delgado’s attorney, disagreed, telling the judge, “I believe the court has to give careful consideration to the efforts that both defendants have made since the filing of this case. . . . They have made a tremendous turnaround since these entire events took place. I think under these circumstances, the court should impose something less than the five years.”

Despite a pre-sentencing report that recommended probation for Gilbert Delgado as well, Fitzgerald sentenced him to two years in state prison.

“The court is impressed with the turnaround of both of these defendants,” he said, adding that he agreed with the pre-sentencing report that Gilbert Delgado has been “substantially rehabilitated from the lifestyle that existed a number of years ago.”

On the other hand, the judge continued, “Mr. King is correct. Substantial prison time should be served by people who are responsible for killing their child. . . . For being criminally responsible for the killing of the child, no punishment is too great.

“However, the court has taken into consideration the fact that I believe that this defendant . . . will become a law-abiding citizen.”

Immediately after the sentence was pronounced, Gilbert Delgado was taken into custody, handcuffed and led out of the courtroom.

With credit for time spent in County Jail, Gilbert Delgado will serve approximately 12 months in the state prison at Chino before being released, according to his attorney.

King later called both sentences “appropriate.”

In an earlier Juvenile Court proceeding, the Delgados were permitted to retain custody of Gilbert Jr., and they now have another infant daughter.

Following Stephanie’s death, witnesses told police that Gilbert Delgado was a drug dealer and that Debbie Delgado was a willing participant in the couple’s drug lifestyle. At a preliminary hearing, another witness testified that the Delgados either snorted or prepared cocaine near Stephanie’s baby bottle.

The couple went underground for a year after learning that they faced arrest on child endangerment charges in connection with Stephanie’s death.

In October, 1987, they were arrested in Costa Mesa living under different names.