Mother Will Be Tried in Baby’s Death : Burbank: Judge finds ‘strong suspicion’ that Tani McCollough suffocated her son before apparent suicide attempt.

Calling it “one of the most disturbing” cases she’s heard, a Los Angeles Municipal Court judge on Monday ordered a Burbank woman to stand trial for murder in the mysterious death of her 10-day-old son.

Judge Kathleen Kennedy-Powell said her decision was difficult and that the facts and legal issues raised during a preliminary hearing in the murder case of Tani Renee McCollough occupied her thoughts all weekend.

In the end, the judge found a “strong suspicion” that McCollough, 31, had suffocated the baby--even if the Los Angeles County coroner could not rule out sudden infant death syndrome, commonly known as SIDS or “crib death.”

Prosecutor Karen L. Tandler is alleging that McCollough, depressed and overwhelmed by the responsibility of being a mother, smothered baby Colin, then leaped from a freeway overpass in an apparent suicide attempt.

The defense contends that McCollough, an admittedly apprehensive new mother, became distraught and leaped from the overpass after finding her son dead in his cradle.

Defense attorney Bernard W. Talmas argued that there was no evidence that the baby had been murdered and that an autopsy had failed to determine the cause of the baby’s death.

“It’s bad enough she discovered her child dead, jumped off a bridge and tried to kill herself. Now she’s in custody. It’s a crazy situation,” said Talmas, requesting dismissal of the murder charge.

However, Kennedy-Powell said that although the evidence she heard might leave reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors, it was strong enough to move the case forward to trial.

The judge then lowered McCollough’s bail from $1 million to $250,000, stating: “I doubt there’s anything the criminal-justice system can do to this defendant that’s any worse than what she’s already experienced and has to experience on a day-to-day basis whenever she recalls what happened to her infant son.”

McCollough’s friends, neighbors and family--including husband Jeffrey, the chief prosecution witness against her--immediately began trying to raise bail to secure her release.

The case began to unfold shortly after 10 a.m. on Nov. 23, 1994, when Jeffrey McCollough came home from a morning run to find his wife missing and his baby son cold and blue in his cradle. The bedroom door was locked and the window screen unlatched.

At about the same time, as McCollough tried to revive his son, Tani McCollough leaped from the Hollywood Way overpass onto the Ventura Freeway. She was comatose for a week and hospitalized for a month with a fractured skull and multiple other fractures.

The baby was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank.

Los Angeles County Coroner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran testified Friday that he could not rule out two causes of death: suffocation, which would be homicide; and SIDS, a natural cause. The coroner added, however, that SIDS is relatively rare in 10-day-old infants.

Because the autopsy failed to determine exactly what caused the infant’s death, Jeffrey McCollough became the prosecution’s most crucial witness against his wife, even though he says he loves her and will stand by her.

He testified Friday and Monday under a grant of immunity from prosecution. The judge commented that she could understand why he would seek protection against a charge of failing to safeguard his son but emphasized that she believes no such charge should be brought.

The McColloughs have been married for seven years. Jeffrey told police that through most of their marriage, they believed they would be unable to have children, according to testimony by Officer Reeve Rickard.

When Tani did become pregnant, the couple’s joy at starting a family was eclipsed by her depression and anxiety that she would fail as a mother, according to Rickard’s testimony. The fear began when she was pregnant and continued after Colin’s birth, Rickard quoted Jeffrey McCollough as saying.

Jeffrey testified that his wife had “bad feelings” that scared the two of them so much, they sought help from a clinical psychologist during her pregnancy. The therapist diagnosed her as a dependent personality who would be more likely to abandon the baby than kill him, police testified.

Jeffrey McCollough testified that two days before the baby’s death, he found his wife crying in the kitchen. She confessed to having “bad feelings” and could “see herself doing things” to herself and the child.

He also testified, reluctantly, that she said she’d thought about suffocating the baby by cupping her hand over his nose and mouth, then killing herself.

Prosecutor Tandler alleged that the conversation is proof that Tani McCollough intentionally killed her baby.

But Jeffrey McCollough disputed that point, telling the prosecutor: “You keep using the word ‘intended,’ and I keep telling you she had feelings. Feelings don’t make intentions, and I can’t say she intended to do anything.”