CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : VENTURA : Woman Faces Trial in Newborn’s Death

A 22-year-old Ventura County farm worker accused of twice dropping her infants into toilets, injuring the first and killing the second, was ordered to stand trial for murder and attempted murder. Municipal Judge John R. Smiley ordered Francisca Maria Jimenez Sanchez held for trial after a 2 1/2-day preliminary hearing. Witnesses testified during the hearing that they found Sanchez’s newborn son suffocated in a chemical toilet in a Saticoy onion field on July 28, and that she had tried to flush another newborn boy down the toilet of her Oxnard house in May, 1990. Sanchez repeatedly denied that she was pregnant both times, her co-workers testified. But on July 28, Sanchez complained of a stomachache and went into a portable toilet near the field, co-workers testified. She emerged later with a sweater tied around her waist and blood on her shoes, they said. The baby was found two days later by a sanitation worker.