Mother Testifies in Crash That Killed Baby

Testifying tearfully in her own defense, a mother charged with vehicular manslaughter in the death of her infant son told a jury that she had buckled her children’s seat belts, but lost control of the family van when two of the children unfastened the belt they shared.

“I noticed they were fidgeting with it, and I told them to put it back on,” said Lesia Smith-Pappas, 33, of Canyon Country, whose 3-month-old son, Alexander, was killed in the crash on Bouquet Canyon Road on Aug. 29, 1995.

Smith-Pappas told the jury she believes the distraction forced her to drive onto the shoulder of the road, where her van skidded on loose gravel. “Before I realized I was further over on the shoulder than I wanted to be--too late!” she told jurors.

“I was scared. I was nervous with the kids in the car. I saw a break between the bushes and I said, ‘Hold on kids. We’re going into the field,’ and that’s the last thing I remember. The next thing I recall,” she testified, “I was standing next to my van, crying out for my kids.”

The mother and one son had been thrown through the windshield, according to testimony. Another child climbed to safety, but the baby, still partially in his car seat, was crushed by a van door, prosecutors say.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Foltz Jr. contends none of the children were wearing seat belts when Smith-Pappas rolled the van while driving at speeds estimated at 65 to 70 mph.

The prosecution says Smith-Pappas is criminally negligent for speeding and failing to buckle her children. And Foltz points to two citations Smith-Pappas received for failing to restrain her children with seat belts.

Under questioning by defense attorney Dale Galipo, Smith-Pappas suggested some of the injuries the baby suffered might have been caused by a passerby’s overzealous efforts to revive the infant, who had seemed to Smith-Pappas to be uninjured a few moments earlier.

“As I recall, he was face-up and he was fine,” she said.

Later “when I went back to where Alex was, they had already taken him out of his car seat. A man was performing CPR,” she testified. “He had two hands on his chest and he was pushing down. I shouted out ‘NO!’ because that’s not the way to perform CPR on an infant.”

According to earlier testimony, the baby’s fatal injuries included a punctured lung, broken neck and brain swelling.

Smith-Pappas also described her reaction when she was told by a nurse that Alexander had died, and she suggested that authorities had taken advantage of her shock and grief to coerce incriminating statements from her.

“I was in shock. I was very upset. I was crying. I was laughing. I think I was in what they call hysterical shock,” she said.

Holding her dead baby in her arms, she told a California Highway Patrol officer that she drove “a little too fast” around the curve.

A week after the accident, she told the jury, the Department of Children’s Services took her three surviving children from her. A month after that, she was charged with vehicular manslaughter.

Her children were returned to her on July 2, Smith-Pappas testified. Daughter Christina and son Nicholas testified earlier in the trial that they were sitting together in the passenger seat when they removed the seat belt because it was too tight. Their mother told them to refasten it, but the accident occurred before they could, the children testified.

Both testified that they watched as their mother gave up her own seat belt, using it to fasten the baby’s car seat to the floor behind the driver’s seat.

Smith-Pappas denied discussing the case with her children, or instructing them how to testify.

Also, under Foltz’s cross-examination, she denied that she was a reckless driver who endangered her own children. “I’m not a bad driver,” she insisted, even while acknowledging that she had never taken a driver’s test or obtained a driver’s license.

Smith-Pappas testified that she had obtained several learner’s permits, and had made appointments to take a driving test but never kept them.

“I never made it to the Department of Motor Vehicles,” she said. “I was raising a family and I was busy. Yes, I know it’s important to have a license but I hadn’t had a moving violation. I didn’t consider myself a bad or reckless driver.”

After receiving numerous citations for driving without a license and failing to buckle her children, Smith-Pappas said the DMV suspended her driving privileges.

“I understood that my license, which I didn’t even have, was suspended.”

Testimony continues today, and the case is expected to go the jury next week.