Jury Acquits O.C. Mother in Baby’s Death

A young Laguna Niguel mother accused of fatally shooting her 8-month-old baby in the head was acquitted of murder and manslaughter Monday. But it may not be the final chapter in the tragic case, with defense attorneys threatening to sue authorities for alleged civil rights violations.

Shantae Molina cried in relief as the jury’s verdict was announced after nearly four days of intense deliberation.

A string of rosary beads around her thin wrist, she said thoughts of God and her dead child helped her endure the two-year investigation and trial.

“He was the best thing that ever happened to me,” she said of Armani Shyloh Contreras. “I think about him all the time.”

Molina, 22, who did not testify, has been free on $25,000 bail and living with her parents in Laguna Niguel. If found guilty, she faced the possibility of serving 35 years to life in prison.

“Sometimes justice gets done,” said defense attorney Eric Lampel. He was jubilant but said investigators’ treatment of his client was unjust.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robin Park praised the jury and defended her prosecution of the case.

But legal experts questioned whether the prosecution’s case was strong enough to warrant murder charges. Lacking strong physical evidence, most murder cases feature eyewitness testimony or other evidence linking a suspect to the crime.

In this case, the key evidence consisted of love letters from Molina that contained suicidal language, and pleas for more attention from her boyfriend.

“That doesn’t prove murder,” said USC law professor Erwin Chemerinsky. “If that’s all the prosecutor had, it’s a very weak case.”

Jurors would only say that the deliberations had been intense.

“It was not an open-and-shut case,” said the foreman, a middle-aged man. “It was a very difficult decision.”

From the moment Molina made a frantic 911 call on Oct. 16, 1998, to say she had shot her baby in the head, there have been questions. He died seven hours later after two attempts at lifesaving surgery.

Molina’s attorneys criticized investigators for using intimidation to try to coax a confession from Molina. While her baby was in surgery, they said, Molina was taken to a Sheriff’s Department facility where she was told to undress to see if there was a sign of a struggle, and photographed naked.

The attorneys said the tactic was unheard of in a murder case involving a mother charged with killing a baby.

At the trial, jurors were shown one of the pictures.

“I wanted the jury to see the degradation and humiliation,” said Lampel. “They were trying to get her to break down and say ‘I killed my baby.’ ”

Park denied that authorities’ tactics were excessive.

“From the very beginning I did my best to ensure that she receive a fair trial,” said Park.

At a preliminary hearing, Molina was ordered to stand trial for murder after David Guest, then an Orange County sheriff’s investigator, testified that a coroner’s autopsy indicated that 8-month-old Armani died from a ‘contact [gunshot] wound.’

But Lampel said prosecutors knew from their own reports that the baby died from a bullet fired 18 to 24 inches away. Guest did not repeat the contact wound testimony during trial. But Park noted during her closing argument that a medical expert said the wound could be consistent with a contact shot. The comment drew a reprimand from the judge, who told jurors to disregard it.

Molina Portraits Were Opposites

During the two-week trial, Molina sat quietly as the opposing lawyers painted drastically different pictures of her personality. Park described Molina, then 20, as a sad woman fighting for the waning attentions of her estranged boyfriend, Armani’s father, who was living with another woman at the time.

After talking with him on the telephone that day, she took her stepfather’s handgun from his bedroom and fired it four times: twice in the bedroom, once into an armchair, and finally at her baby at close range, Park said.

Park read aloud excerpts of a love letter Molina wrote to the father of her child: “Sometimes I think if I hurt myself or something stupid maybe you’ll care for me more,” she read.

Defense lawyer Lampel countered that Molina led a happy and normal life, and was mistreated by overzealous prosecutors who disregarded evidence that she might have fired the shots to scare off a prowler lurking outside. He said that there was a pair of 12-inch footprints in the side yard and a rash of burglaries in the neighborhood.

But a former teacher of Molina’s interviewed by the Times after her arrest said she had taken the young woman into her home after she showed up on her doorstep 4 1/2 months pregnant. She said Molina often talked about family discord over her pregnancy.

After the fatal shooting, Molina’s family rallied around her. As the verdict was read on Monday, Kenny Welch, Molina’s stepfather, wiped tears from his eyes.

Although he was happy Molina was acquitted, he said the trial had driven him to bankruptcy. He said authorities had also tried to take his younger daughter away from him and his wife after the shooting.

“I can’t express the heartbreak. We’ve been living in fear of what might happen for two years,” he said, adding that the trial taught him a bitter lesson.

“Things like this happen in Orange County. It can happen to you,” Welch said.