Parents Enter Guilty Plea to Leaving Son at Mall

The parents of a 3-year-old boy pleaded guilty Tuesday to abandoning him at a San Bernardino shopping mall in June before heading for a Grateful Dead concert in San Francisco and hitchhiking back home to Maryland.

The couple, Wolfgang Von Nester, 23, and his wife, Lisa, 24, face up to six years in state prison when they are sentenced Aug. 24 by Superior Court Judge Robert Fawke.

They pleaded guilty to two felony counts--child abandonment and child endangerment--and Fawke indicated Tuesday that he would probably sentence them to four to six years in prison, pending the recommendation of a Probation Department report.

San Bernardino County Deputy Dist. Atty. Denise Trager-Dvorak said she would argue for the maximum penalty because “it’s pretty egregious to abandon a boy so young he can’t talk, can’t say he needs help, can’t say his name, can’t change his own diapers or in any other way take care of himself.”

Wolfgang Jr. was discovered alone at the Carousel Mall near downtown San Bernardino on June 2, confounding authorities for a week until he was identified by his paternal grandparents, who live in nearby Highland and saw a video of him on television.

Wolfgang’s parents were discovered and arrested June 26 while hiking home along the Appalachian Trail near the Maryland-Pennsylvania border, eating only berries they had picked along the way, authorities said. The arresting officer said the couple were “starved and dirty” and appeared relieved that they were picked up.

In a subsequent television interview from a Hagerstown, Md., jail, Nester said he and his wife had come to California to start a new life, and were in a San Bernardino coffee shop when they noticed police were checking stolen license tags on the car they were driving.

“I just went into the mall. . . . I let him stay there,” Nester said. “I figured that without food and without money and without diapers . . . what else could I do? I walked away in tears.”

The couple bought bus tickets to travel to a Grateful Dead concert in San Francisco before hitchhiking back home to Maryland.

The couple voluntarily agreed to return to California to face charges, and Trager-Dvorak said she was pleased they had at least accepted responsibility for their actions.

Wolfgang Jr. is the couple’s only child, but Lisa Nester has four other children, all of whom are in the custody of her mother, the prosecutor said.

The boy has been placed in the custody of his paternal grandparents.