SATICOY : Retrial Ordered in Death of Infant

A Ventura County judge has scheduled an April retrial for an Oxnard farm worker accused of twice dropping her newborn infants into toilets, after the jury in her first trial failed to reach a verdict on charges of murder and attempted murder Friday.

Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch, who supervises the criminal courts, ordered a retrial for Francisca Sanchez Jimenez, 23, beginning April 17. Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones is scheduled to preside over that trial.

Jimenez’s roommates had testified in her first trial that they burst into the bathroom May 11, 1990, and found her forcing her newborn son headfirst into a flushing toilet moments after giving birth to him.

They said they rescued the baby, named Jose Luis, who now lives with foster parents.

Then, 14 months later, Jimenez gave birth to another boy, whose body was discovered July 28 floating in the sump of feces and chemicals in a portable toilet near the Saticoy onion field where she worked, witnesses testified.

Jimenez has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity to the charges of murder and attempted murder. If she is convicted in her second trial, an additional trial will be required to determine whether she was sane at the time of the alleged crimes.