Mother Gets Probation in Baby’s Death

A teenager with the mental abilities of a child was sentenced to three years’ probation Monday for the death of her newborn son, whose body was found last year in a wastebasket in her bedroom closet.

Bertha Delgado Hernandez, 19, faced a maximum 15 years to life in state prison under her second-degree murder conviction, but Superior Court Judge Richard M. Aronson cited a number of factors in handing down a probation sentence, including her marked intellectual limitations and lack of a criminal record.

Hernandez never intended to kill her baby, Deputy Public Defender Linda Van Winkle said. The judge ruled that Hernandez was not a danger to herself or others, and the unusual circumstances leading to the child’s death were not likely to happen again, Van Winkle said.

“She will be released within a few days and will be returning to family in Mexico,” Van Winkle said. “It was a tough trial. It was heartbreaking and just difficult for everybody.”

Hernandez, who had been living for about a year in Santa Ana, isolated from her family in rural Mexico, was frightened, poor, uneducated and confused about her pregnancy, according to court testimony. The young woman hid her condition from the Santa Ana family she was living with before giving birth silently in her bedroom on Feb. 15, 1995.

She later called for help when she continued bleeding, and hospital officials then notified police that she had just given birth. Medical testimony indicated the boy was born healthy but died from “mechanical asphyxiation,” possibly from being placed head-down in the wastebasket.

The defense and prosecution offered conflicting testimony about whether the young woman realized she was pregnant in the first place.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko said he did not push for a prison sentence: “I left it up to the judge, and it was a difficult decision to make.”

Hernandez, who was found guilty of second-degree murder, has been jailed since her arrest.