Probation Ordered in Newborn’s Death
A Newhall woman pleaded no contest Monday to a charge of voluntary manslaughter stemming from the drowning death of her newborn baby in a toilet.
Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Meredith Taylor placed Cheryl Iwai, 21, on three years probation and ordered her to return May 15 for a progress report hearing. At the hearing the court may decide to shorten or lengthen her sentence, a court clerk said.
After becoming pregnant while attending college in San Diego in 1994, Iwai moved back home with her parents in Newhall.
In July 1995, she gave birth to a full-term baby while sitting on a toilet and left the newborn to drown, prosecutors said.
Iwai was charged with one count of murdering a fetus, and one count of murder.
Such charges would have given a jury a choice of convicting Iwai of either crime.
A murder conviction would have brought a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
