2 Trials Sought in Toddler’s Death

An attorney asked Wednesday for separate murder trials for two Oxnard parents who are accused of beating their 2-year-old daughter to death.

The child’s father, Rogelio Hernandez, would be prejudiced in the jury’s eyes by comments from his wife and co-defendant, Gabriela Hernandez, if they were tried together, Deputy Public Defender Douglas Daily argued in a motion filed in Superior Court.

The motion cites Gabriela Hernandez’s claims that her husband battered both her and 2-year-old Joselin. The child died last year of blunt-force injuries to her stomach that prosecutors say were inflicted by her parents, each 19 years old at the time.

“Gabriela has begun making a variety of public and private statements which, for the first time, accuse Rogelio of committing these crimes and portray him as solely responsible,” the motion says.

It also says that her attorney has “made it clear that [the] co-defendant’s defense at trial is primarily and perhaps solely based on a theory that Rogelio was the sole active agent causing injury to victim Joselin” and that her failure to stop the violence was “the product of some paralytic condition or syndrome caused by Rogelio’s abusive treatment of her.”

The prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Dee Corona, declined to comment Wednesday afternoon because she had not yet read Daily’s severance motion. The case is scheduled for trial on Monday.