Woman Enters Plea in Boy’s Death

A North Hollywood woman, freed from prison in the beating death of a 2-year-old boy, again pleaded to felony charges in the crime Friday, over the objections of her lawyer who said that prosecutors had coerced her into a bad decision.

Eve Wingfield, who served two years before being released by a judge who said new evidence indicated that she may be innocent, pleaded no contest to one count of felony child abuse, a lesser charge than she accepted in her previous plea. Her sentence is expected to be the time already served.

Her case--involving the beating death of Lance Helms, son of her former boyfriend--ignited widespread criticism of Los Angeles Dependency Court and led to changes in state child abuse laws.

After her release from prison last fall, the boy’s father, David Helms, was arrested on suspicion of killing the toddler by punching him in the stomach.

But the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office refused to drop charges against Wingfield, saying she shared responsibility for the boy’s death, even if she was not present when he was beaten.

Wingfield, 25, showed no emotion as she accepted the prosecutor’s final plea bargain offer.

In what was described as a highly unusual move, Wingfield’s attorney, Alternate Public Defender Michael E. Goodman, refused to join in that plea and told Superior Court Judge Michael Hoff his client had “no choice in the case.”

“We entered into this plea because Eve believed it was in her best interest to avoid trial,” Goodman said after the hearing. “But neither she nor I have ever--or will ever--admit that she is factually or legally responsible for Lance Helms’ death in any way.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Eleanor J. Hunter said she was prepared to go to trial to prove that Wingfield had been guilty of a crime by allowing Lance Helms to be abused in the North Hollywood apartment she shared with his father.

David Helms fathered two of Wingfield’s children, although Lance was born to a different woman, the report said.

In 1996, on the advice of a public defender who believed that the district attorney had irrefutable evidence that would get her convicted of murder, Wingfield pleaded guilty to felony child endangerment causing death and received a 10-year prison sentence.

That advice was based on testimony by Dr. James K. Ribe, a senior deputy medical examiner with the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, who said at Wingfield’s preliminary hearing that Lance had been beaten while in Wingfield’s care, 30 to 60 minutes before he succumbed to blows so severe they split his liver.

Prosecutors used that testimony to argue that Wingfield must have carried out the crime April 6, 1995, at Helms’ apartment.

After Wingfield went to prison, Gail Helms--mother of David Helms and grandmother of the dead boy--sought a police investigation of her son, who she said had a history of family violence--especially punching people in the stomach--and a long criminal record.

When detectives re-investigated, Ribe shifted the estimated time of Lance’s death to moments after he was hit, a period when Lance was in the care of his father and Wingfield was not present.

When a judge received the report, he ordered Wingfield released on her own recognizance in September, saying there was a “compelling” case to reopen her trial.