Mother Convicted of Murdering 3-Year-Old

A Long Beach woman convicted Wednesday of murdering her 3-year-old daughter and hiding the body in a block of concrete began sobbing and blaming her boyfriend for the girl’s death after hearing the jury’s verdict.

“Oh God. Oh no, no, no,” Rakeisha Scott, 23, said in Los Angeles Superior Court. “I didn’t kill my baby. How can they sit there and say I did?”

A few minutes later, as sheriff’s deputies escorted her from the courtroom, Scott turned toward her lawyer.

“If I go down for life, he’s going down, too,” Scott yelled, referring to her boyfriend, Randy Foster. “He did it.”

Jurors found Scott guilty of second-degree murder, assault on a child under age 8 and child endangerment in connection with her daughter’s death in 1999.

Foster, 23, was convicted Monday of child abuse but was acquitted of murder. The jury in his case deadlocked on involuntary manslaughter and assault charges.

Foster and Scott said in statements to officials that Scott’s daughter, Milan Anjonet Scott Wilson, went to bed dizzy one night after falling down in the bathroom. When the couple awoke the next morning, the girl was dead, they said.

The couple then dismembered the child’s body, encased the parts in concrete and placed the hardened concrete in the trunk of Foster’s car, according to testimony.

Authorities were not alerted until several months later, when Foster’s father, Bill, called police. The elder Foster said his son had told him about the body in the trunk.

During the trial, neither Scott nor Randy Foster disputed concealing the body. They claimed that the girl’s death was an accident.

They said they were afraid that authorities would not believe them and would take away their son, Randy Jr.

Alternate Public Defender Rick Sternfeld, who represented Scott, said he intends to appeal.

Scott faces 25 years to life in prison when she is sentenced May 8. Foster faces 10 years in prison when he is sentenced May 1, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Victor Rodriguez.

“I think they’re equally culpable for the death of this child,” Rodriguez said Wednesday.

The couple administered severe discipline on the girl, which led to her death, Rodriguez said.

He said the district attorney’s office has not decided whether to retry Foster for the charges on which the jury deadlocked.