Discarded Infant Given Burial : Charity: Group founded by Brea pair provides funerals for abandoned or indigent babies. Body of girl was left in Dumpster by her mother.

A baby girl who died just after her birth last October and was discarded in a Dumpster was given a Catholic funeral Wednesday, the first of its kind in Orange County arranged by the nonprofit group Child Rest in Peace.

The organization, which previously provided burial services for 12 abandoned or indigent children in Los Angeles County, was founded by a Brea couple upset to learn that the remains of abandoned babies were routinely cremated by county officials, then placed in common graves.

“We just wanted to give them a decent funeral service,” said Rosabelia Horton, who founded the group with her husband in 1991. “We just wanted to show that they aren’t completely abandoned.”

Only Horton and the funeral director, Gus McAulay, attended the burial of baby Veronica, who was named shortly before Christmas at Horton’s urging. The child’s mother, Veronica Aguilar Gonzalez of Costa Mesa, had planned to attend the funeral but stayed away, apparently because she had learned that reporters and photographers would be present, her attorney said.

Aguilar Gonzalez, who faces a misdemeanor charge of illegally discarding the infant’s body in a Newport Beach trash receptacle three days after she gave birth alone in her home, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

“She’s just scared and embarrassed about all this,” said Shelly Aronson, Aguilar Gonzalez’s public defender. “When she got out of jail, all these reporters were there pushing cameras in her face and she was very upset. I’m sure that’s why she decided not to go.”

Aguilar Gonzalez, 26, was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after the child’s body was discovered in early November at an Irvine trash transfer station. But she was later charged only with the misdemeanor of improperly disposing of human and fetal remains.

A coroner’s report determined that the baby had died of “fetal asphyxia due to aspirated amniotic fluid.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lance Jensen said Aguilar Gonzalez is expected to plead guilty to the misdemeanor charge at a hearing Wednesday. At most, he said, she will spend 30 days in jail. But Jensen said he will also recommend that Aguilar Gonzalez be placed on probation and ordered to attend parenting classes. She already has spent 11 days in jail.

At the Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange on Wednesday, Father Jose Mendez conducted the service standing near a tiny casket covered in white satin and topped with a gold-toned crucifix and yellow, pink and lavender blossoms.

The priest, who was asked to officiate because the mother said she was a member of his church, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Santa Ana, prayed that the baby will enjoy peaceful rest and eternal life.

Mendez made the sign of the cross over the casket. Horton and McAulay, of Fairhaven Memorial Park, which donated the mortuary services, chatted briefly, then drifted away.

In describing the circumstances of the baby’s birth, Aronson, the public defender, painted a picture of a confused young woman who was embarrassed by her pregnancy and had managed to conceal it from almost everyone.

Aguilar Gonzalez had planned to return home to Mexico to deliver the baby, but went into labor several weeks early on Oct. 31, and gave birth alone in the Costa Mesa apartment she shared with several acquaintances, the lawyer said.

When the infant did not start breathing, Aronson said, Aguilar Gonzalez shook it, then panicked.

“She couldn’t get it to breathe, then was scared to death, thinking that somebody would blame her. She didn’t know what to do,” Aronson said.

According to Aronson and prosecutors, Aguilar Gonzalez hid the baby’s body in her apartment for several days, then wrapped it in a plastic bag and carried it on the bus on her way to work as a housekeeper and nanny in Newport Beach. She discarded the body in a trash bin behind a Newport Beach apartment complex.

“This woman is a reliable worker who is great with kids and is very responsible in other respects,” Aronson said. “This is so out of character for her. She’s very responsible and dependable. She’s just a girl who made a big mistake.”

Jensen sees the situation differently, although he agreed there was no evidence that the child had died of anything other than natural causes.

“I feel she’s a very selfish individual who was concerned about her own health and went to the hospital to deal with some bleeding, leaving a dead baby in a hamper for three days while she went on about her life,” the prosecutor said.

Aguilar Gonzalez was arrested after news reports of the baby’s body being discovered jarred the memory of a doctor at Hoag Hospital who had treated the woman for bleeding she claimed was the result of a miscarriage, Jensen said.

Horton said she decided to try to arrange the funeral after reading news reports about the baby’s body being discovered. Even though Child Rest in Peace had never before held a service for a child found outside Los Angeles County, Horton said the circumstances were of the same sort that moved her to start the group two years ago.

“I just think every child should have a funeral, even though I’m not very religious,” she said. “It just didn’t seem right to me that they were being put in a mass grave.”

Horton said she and her husband, who own a Santa Fe Springs carpet installation company, have received enough donations to date to pay for all the funerals, including the grave sites and mortuary services.

“In this case, I’m trying hard not to be judgmental,” she said. “I talked with (Aguilar Gonzalez) once and think she just had no conscience maybe. Or maybe she was so distraught she just wasn’t thinking clearly. Who knows?”