Surprise Guilty Plea in Toddler’s Death

A La Habra woman abruptly pleaded guilty Monday to the beating death of her 3-year-old son and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

On the day her trial was to begin in Orange County Superior Court, Geneva Adame, 40, admitted to second-degree murder in the death of Daniel Angel Morales. Adame’s attorney, James W. Brott, said the key factor in her decision to plead guilty was a suicide attempt by her 13-year-old daughter, who was scheduled to testify for the prosecution.

“She didn’t want to put her family through the agony of a trial, especially her daughter,” Brott said.

On May 18, 1997, police found Adame on her front lawn, sobbing over the lifeless body of the 3-year-old. Adame was arrested on suspicion of murder after an extensive investigation in which authorities staked out the house and interviewed neighbors, baby-sitters and family members.

Adame initially told officers that the toddler had suffered a seizure and blamed her 5-year-old son for injuries that investigators discovered. But her daughter, then 11 years old, told authorities that she had seen Adame beat the toddler on previous occasions.

An autopsy revealed that he died of severe trauma to the head and was bruised on his ears, arms, legs, genitalia and rectum. There were 21 separate internal bruises on the child’s head, Deputy Dist. Atty. Claudia Silbar said.

Authorities said earlier injuries may have contributed to the death.

“It was devastating to see the injuries and suffering that that child went through,” Silbar said. “And rather than risk harm to another child, we accepted the plea.”

Prosecutors said Adame had a history of drug abuse that spanned 10 years. Daniel was placed in foster care shortly after his birth when social service workers discovered that the newborn was addicted to drugs, prosecutors said.

Adame requested custody of the child and completed various drug rehabilitation programs, authorities said. Because she had no record of child abuse, social workers granted her request and returned Daniel to her. The child died about six months later, Silbar said.

“This child had been bruised from head to toe,” Silbar said. “This is among the worst cases I’ve seen.”

Jose Caino, the toddler’s foster father for more than two years, told Superior Court Judge Richard Weatherspoon on Monday that he had loved the boy and wanted to adopt him. Caino said the child was terrified after visits with Adame and sometimes would come back with injuries.

Court records show that Daniel’s death was not the first tragedy in Adame’s family. On Sept. 14, 1969, Adame, then 11, and two of her siblings were seen sobbing on the front yard of the same La Habra home as police investigated the death of their mother. Adame’s father, Andrew Adame, was arrested in connection with that crime but was acquitted, court records show.

In that incident, according to court records, Adame was awakened at 2 a.m. by gunfire and went with her brother to their parents’ bedroom, where they found their mother bleeding on the floor as their father made a telephone call.

“There has been much agony in the family,” attorney Brott said. By pleading guilty Monday, he said, Adame “wanted to spare them of any more turmoil.”

Adame’s 5-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter will remain in protective custody.