Man Convicted in Sexual Assault, Death of Toddler

A Lancaster man was convicted Wednesday of sexually assaulting and then shaking a toddler to death, with the jury returning a first-degree murder verdict with special circumstances that could result in the death penalty.

The six-man, six-woman jury returned the verdict against Robert Brian Patalsky in San Fernando Superior Court, meeting in Van Nuys.

Beginning Tuesday, jurors will decide whether Patalsky deserves death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“We are seeking the death penalty, and I will pursue it with great vigor,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert B. Foltz Jr. said.

In his closing argument last week in the Van Nuys courtroom, Foltz had described the attack on 13-month-old Brianna Lee Schmidt as “unspeakable.”

On Nov. 30, 1991, Patalsky, a 26-year-old carpet cleaner and reputed methamphetamine user, was left to care for Brianna, his girlfriend’s daughter, while the girlfriend and Patalsky’s mother went shopping.

Patalsky later rushed the girl to a neighbor’s house, saying he had found Brianna in a playpen, covered in vomit and breathing erratically. Medical examiners determined that the girl had been raped and sodomized and that she had died from a violent shaking.

Brianna’s death was one of seven killings of Antelope Valley infants and toddlers over a 14-month period in 1991 and 1992, allegedly by their parents or guardians. The deaths raised awareness among community leaders regarding the severity of child abuse problems in the area and led to calls for expanded services and information programs.

Investigators said many of these deaths, including Brianna’s, were linked to adults’ use of the drug methamphetamine, commonly called speed.

During the trial, jurors saw graphic photographs of the injured child and heard a statement Patalsky made to investigators.

“If it happened, I did it. I was the only one there,” Patalsky said. “But I didn’t do it.”

In returning the guilty verdict, the jury found that special circumstances existed because the killing was committed in conjunction with acts of rape, sodomy and child molestation. In his closing argument, Patalsky’s attorney, Ezekial P. Perlo, had urged jurors to consider that the killing had been motivated by anger, not sexual assault. He could not be reached for comment.

During the deliberations, two jurors were replaced by alternates, Foltz said. One explained that he was too emotionally distressed by the evidence, while the other was excused because of health problems, the prosecutor said.