Mother Convicted in Baby’s Death

A jury in Pomona deliberated less than a day before finding a La Habra woman guilty of second-degree murder Thursday for leaving her infant son in a closed-up car last summer as she slept at a Claremont motel.

Superior Court Judge Charles E. Horan ordered Kimberly Sue Fudge of La Habra to jail pending her Dec. 8 sentencing. She had been free on $500,000 bond.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol Najera alleged that Fudge had methamphetamine and amphetamine in her system on June 14, when her 5-month-old son, Cailin Cutillo, was found dead in his car seat.

A surveillance tape that jurors saw during the three-day trial showed Fudge’s car parked at a La Habra Kmart, where detectives said she shopped from midnight to 5 a.m. on June 14 before leaving with $6.18 worth of purchases.

Claremont police Detective Lawrence Horowitz testified that the baby was strapped into his car seat in Fudge’s car while she shopped.

A couple of hours later, she drove to the Claremont motel, where the child’s father had spent the night, Horowitz said.

The infant was left in his car seat outside the Howard Johnson’s Lodge on Indian Hill Boulevard for about six hours as outside temperatures rose to the mid-90s, authorities said.

Police measured the temperature inside the closed-up car at 118 degrees.

The night before, Fudge and the baby’s father, Dylan Cutillo, had an argument, and he went to the motel to spend the night, she told police.

She told police she went inside to talk to Cutillo and fell asleep until that afternoon.

Claremont police got a call about 1:50 p.m. from the hysterical mother, saying her baby was not breathing.

Paramedics found the child dead in the motel room when they arrived. Authorities believe the baby had been dead for a couple of hours before his mother found him.

The father was not charged because he apparently was unaware that the baby was in a car seat and locked in the 1991 four-door Buick.

Police said the car’s back windows were darkly tinted, making it difficult for passersby to see the baby inside.

Jurors also heard testimony about other occasions when Fudge had left her son and her other three children alone in the car.