SATICOY : Woman Accused in Baby’s Death Said to Have IQ of 70
A psychologist testified on Wednesday that the farm worker accused of dropping her newborn baby in a portable toilet in Saticoy last July is borderline mentally retarded and has little ability to function normally in society.
Jose J. LaCalle, a bilingual psychologist who has interviewed Francisca Jimenez Sanchez three times, told jurors in Ventura County Superior Court that the woman has an IQ of 70.
LaCalle’s figure is the highest of several estimates of Sanchez’s IQ, which has been judged to be as low as 53. The medical definition of mental retardation is an IQ between 50 and 70.
Judge Lynn D. Compton refused to allow LaCalle, a San Francisco-based psychologist who specializes in analyzing Hispanic defendants in capital cases, to present an opinion on the cultural circumstances that might have led to the baby’s death.
In an interview after completing his testimony, LaCalle said the illiterate migrant worker was entirely ignorant about the reproductive process and unable to understand history.
Either could have led her to mistakenly have the baby in the toilet and think it had been a miscarriage, he said.
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