Woman Convicted in Burning of Child in Car

A woman accused of abducting the 3-year-old son of her alleged lesbian lover from a Long Beach day-care center and abandoning him in a car she had set afire was convicted Monday of attempted murder, authorities said.

A Compton Superior Court jury found Belinda Crawford, 28, guilty of several special allegations for which she could face life in prison when she is sentenced Jan. 11. Prosecutors said the special allegations include use of a deadly weapon, torture and inflicting great bodily harm.

Samuel Jones Jr. suffered severe lung damage, third-degree burns on 60% of his body and lost the fingers on his right hand as a result of the May 25 incident, authorities said.

“Nothing can undo the injuries to that child, who will be in physical therapy for some time. But at least some justice was done here,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Cheryl Gaines said.

Authorities said Crawford picked up the boy at the Long Beach Day Nursery West on Chestnut Avenue while posing as his mother and drove him to Watts, where she set fire to the car with the child inside. The boy was rescued by a 15-year-old passerby.

Gaines described the attack as revenge against the boy’s mother, Nita Jones. The women became romantically involved after meeting at a Long Beach convalescent hospital, where they worked, the prosecutor said.

Crawford’s lawyer, public defender Ronald Rose, said his client was distraught over the failed relationship with the mother and was under the influence of the hallucinogenic drug PCP.

During the trial, the prosecutor said Crawford had often been a baby-sitter for the youngster until the relationship ended when Nita Jones refused to leave her husband. The youngster has been undergoing physical therapy at a medical center, authorities said.