Defendant Testifies in Boy’s Death : Courts: Woman who was baby-sitting twins says she gave them medicine because they were sick. One child died, and the other was injured.

A 43-year-old North Hollywood woman, who authorities say gave 14-month-old twins a home brew of various medicines that killed one boy and injured the other, testified Thursday that the children were sick and she was “trying to get their fevers down.”

Melvine Kaiserauer, who was baby-sitting the twins, denied in Van Nuys Superior Court that she knew the medicine contained the narcotic codeine, saying she thought it was only children’s Tylenol.

However, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth A. Loveman introduced evidence during cross-examination Thursday that suggested Kaiserauer had admitted to police that she knowingly gave the boys codeine.

A medical expert testified earlier in Kaiserauer’s manslaughter trial that Christopher Collins died Feb. 20 of codeine and morphine poisoning. His brother, Brandon, was hospitalized with symptoms of the same type of poisoning, but recovered, a doctor testified.

Kaiserauer’s attorney, Marvin L. Part, has sought to portray her as a “good Samaritan” who was caring for the boys overnight without pay at the request of their father, an acquaintance of Kaiserauer’s daughter.

Part contends Kaiserauer mistakenly gave the boys the wrong medicine in what he termed a “terrible tragedy.”

However, Loveman, referring to Christopher, charged that Kaiserauer “doped him to death.” While conceding that the death was accidental, the prosecutor contended that Kaiserauer knowingly gave the boys codeine and other drugs to make them sleep, not out of concern for their health.

She is being tried on one count of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of administering a controlled substance to a child and two counts of child neglect.

If convicted of all five felonies, she faces up to nine years in prison.

During a contentious cross-examination Thursday, Loveman focused on what he said were numerous conflicts between Kaiserauer’s testimony and statements she made to police shortly after paramedics rushed the boys to a hospital.

Kaiserauer repeatedly said she could not remember anything she said in the tape-recorded police interview because at the time she had “been awake 20 hours, had no Miranda rights read to me and gave no permission to search my house.”

But Loveman said that the tape of the interview, which was played in court but was difficult to understand, contains admissions by Kaiserauer that she gave the boys codeine because “they kept waking up. They should have been asleep.”

Jurors will have the tape recording with them during deliberations, Loveman said.